





^ <!# *A^^„* ^ A - * *^^Vf«» 






^ A** * 

^ A V ♦MA" ^?n <£ 






















o • » 






















o • » 



•'A 




* ** * 



o w o 



.^ 




Gx-aDNESS IN JESUS, 



BT 

REV. W. E. BOAKDMAN, 

AUTHOR OF THE ' HIGHER CHRISTIAN LIFE ' AND ' HE THAT 
OVERCOMETH, ' &C, &C. 



Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of 
salvation. — Isaiah xii. 3. 







LI 



y 



WILLARD TRACT REPOSITORY 

12 West Street, Boston. 

1872. 



tm 



*%$&&*& 




w 



&&*&?* 




a5 0\ 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by 

W. E. Board man, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



Feinted bt T. R. Marvin & son, 
131 Congress Street, Boston. 



I NSCRIPTION. 
©0 pint 

whose BIRTH into the world 

was proclaimed from heaven as 

GLAD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY, 

which should be to all people, and whose 

COMING TO ABIDE IN THE SOUL 

brings the joy and gladness 

proclaimed to all those -who thus receive Him, 

^hi$ ISoob i$ joyfully Inscribed and (Jotnmitted 

By His servants 
The Writer and the Publisher. 




CONTENTS 



INTRODUCTION. 
Motives, ......... vii 

CHAPTER I. 
A Bit of Bondage of My Own, 3 



CHAPTER II. 
Doubled Over to Me More and More, 



14 



CHAPTER III. 
Stand in the Gap ! Make tjp the Hedge ! 



23 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Unhappy Sevenths and the Happy Eighths, 



39 



CHAPTER V. 

Is it Robbery or is it Enrichment ? 



50 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Portrait in Romans Seventh, . 



65 



CHAPTER 'VII. 
Trust, Trust, Trust, Over all my Gates, 

(v) 



76 



vi CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER YIII. 

Ourselves to the Lord, Our Children to the 

World, . ... v .... 84 

CHAPTER IX. 
The Story or the Rector, . . . . .91 

CHAPTER X. 
The Mantle of Power, or Work in Full Trust, . 100 

CHAPTER XI. 
Who is This ? Leaning on Jesus, .... 108 

CHAPTER XII. 
Our Heart Burdens for Loved Ones, . . . 118 

CHAPTER XIII. 
At Hand, . . . . 130 

CHAPTER XIY. 
An After-Experience, from a Prophet's Record, . 142 

CHAPTER XY. 
The Anointing of Gladness, . , . . .154 



_ T 




sm 



INTRODUCTION. 



MOTIVES. 



tLADNESS is wonderfully attractive to me. I 
wonder if it is as much so to every body. 

The brightness of the world so fascinated me that- in 
my boyhood, like the ostrich in the sand, I ran my head 
into infidelity for safety, while I should keep the world in 
my heart. All the solemn appeals through twenty whole 
years failed to move me, but a single glad testimony to 
the joys of salvation from one in whom I had confidence, 
convinced me and eclipsed all the attractions of the 
world. 

A solemn Christian repelled me, even in the days of 
deepest solicitude, but a sunny Christian greatly drew 
me. I remember two — one solemn as the grave— I 
reverenced him, but could no more open my heart to him 
than to a mile-stone ; the other's tell-tale face indicated 
the shining pearl of great price, in his heart, and he had 
no need to ask me as to my condition— my heart opened 
to him of its own accord. He had no skill in pointing 
the blind to the door, but the sunshine in his face assured 

(vii) 



Tiii INTRODUCTION. 

me that I could not be far from it when the sun. was 
beaming through upon him. 

The first manifestation of Christ to me was indescrib- 
ably gladdening. He was on the cross between the 
malefactors, crucified for sinners, forgiving a chief among 
sinners, praying for His murderers, and I knew my sins 
to be expiated, forgiven, blotted out forever. O, it 
was wonderful! The golden glory of heaven was upon 
it, and in my soul all that glory was love. 

Yet that experience was not the anointing of glad- 
ness that came ten years later. O how much lost time 
between ! Would that it could be recalled ! Why could 
I not have been taught about the deeper experience im- 
mediately after finding the Saviour? Why should almost 
ten years have gone by, before I had so much as heard 
that there is such a baptism of the Holy Ghost? So it 
was. During that ten years I did indeed hear, and read, 
and think, and pray, and struggle, and strive in reference 
to a consecrated life ; but O how little was my progress ! 
Again it happened that a single glad testimony from one 
in glory was God's chosen motive power to move me. 
Two things during that ten years impressed,— nay, 
oppressed, — but did not move me. One was the example 
of a devout man who lived by rule, and lived up to it, as 
a steward of God ; in all his affairs. It was the law lived 
out, and showed me my lack as the written law could not 
do it. But I saw the impossibility of carrying out the 
principle with such a heart as mine, and did not try. 



INTRODUCTION. ix 

The other thing was a sermon on entire consecration, 
from the Wesleyan theological stand-point, from a good 
man, who laid down the law clearly, and urged the duty 
with much force, but confessed himself wholly Ignorant 
of the matter experimentally. A guide-board points the 
way and we go forward, but a living guide, if he stops, 
brings us to a stand-still with himself, however vehe- 
mently he may urge us on. I stood still with him. Not 
long, however. The Lord, who often puts the right 
book into one's hand at the right time, put the Memoir of 
James Brainerd Taylor in my hand, and his cheery testi- 
mony convinced me that there is for the Christian, — was 
for me, — an anointing of gladness which in a moment 
brings one into position to run with delight the race of 
entire devotion to the Lord. I proved it. I found it 
true. To me it was exceeding abundantly above all I 
had asked or thought. 

How shall I describe it ? To what shall I liken it ? 
The Word of God calls it by many sweet names, —tho 
rest, the abiding, the overcoming, perfect love, perfect 
peace, holiness to the Lord, sanctification to the Lord, 
and many others, — by none sweeter than this, marriage, 
the marriage of the Lamb. 

To one who has not yet found the one designed for him 
by the Giver of every good gift, it is a moment of glad- 
ness when he meets her and is won by her sunny heart, 
shining through her tell-tale face. The moment when 
he wins her and knows it, is one of deeper gladness. The 



x INTR OB UCTION. 

hours they spend together while engaged, are very joy- 
ous, though they are hours only, — visits merely, — only 
earnests of the abiding union in prospect before them. 
So had it been with me during that first ten years of my 
Christian life. Jesus had visited me, won me, and He 
was mine. He came to me often and made me, O how 
glad, with His presence. Then I was left alone. And 
alas ! my confidence in His love sometimes staggered. 
It was a sweet life, but a life of visits. Affianced, but 
not married. But now He had come to abide with me. 
Now we were married, — now we were not merely affi- 
anced, but were one, forever one. O the deep, deep 
gladness of that hour ! And O how abiding ! 

Well, well, this is the sum of all. Gladness is the 
glory of the Gospel — it is glad tidings of great joy. O 
how sad that the dear Church of our blessed Saviour has 
lost sight of the anointing of gladness. The Apostle 
Peter assures us that the promise is unto us, and to our 
children, and to all who are afar off, even as many as the 
Lord our God shall call. Yet we have let it lie as a 
dead letter. We have counted it as a miracle of Apos- 
tolic times, and so have lost it. O how the glory of the 
Gospel has been dimmed ! O how the power of the 
Church has been shorn ! 

For years a painful conviction that the Church had lost 
its power by losing the glory of this deeper experience, 
has pressed upon me. Two years ago it became too 
oppressive to be borne, and I resolved to do what I 



INTR OD UCTION. xi 

could, with the pen and the tongue, while I should live, 
to awaken the beloved people of God to a knowledge of 
the wonderful gladness in the Lord, there is for us hid- 
den in the Gospel. This is the motive which has given 
birth, chapter by chapter, to this book. 

As to the form and manner of it, I am sure that the 
Lord's works praise Him better than our words. When 
we tell what lie has done, and how He has done it, we 
do more to glorify Him than by any amount of rhetoric, 
logic or philosophy, concerning Him and His kingdom. 
A cloud of witnesses is worth ten thousand clouds of 
logicians, rhetoricians, theologians, speculators. 

Deeply convinced of the truth of this principle, the 
aim has been in the main, simply to tell what the Lord 
has done, and how He has done it for one and another, 
and so let His own wonderful works praise Him. 

Besides this, a few stones of false interpretation of 
God's Holy Word have been rolled away, that the 
blessed bride of the Lamb might come forth at His call, 
and enter into the gladness of the marriage — the resur- 
rection life with Him and in Him. Nothing more. These 
are the motives, and this is the work. May the precious 
Saviour own it, bless it, and use it to bless His beloved 
Church. 




Oil f^^^m^^g^,^ 



*\v~ 







GLADNESS IN JESUS. 



«A BIT OF BONDAGE OF MY OWN." 



II^^S^E had enjoyed a precious evening in social 
&^lNf ^^le stu( ty i n tne drawing-room of one 
of England's noblemen, one of the more 
noble men who search the Scriptures and love them 
too, as well as a nobleman by birth and title. As 
we rose to depart, and were interchanging kind 
words with each other, a lady whom I had met 
once or twice before, made her way through the 
company to me and asked, 

" Are you at liberty for next Thursday after- 
noon ? " 

"lam." 

" Would you come to us at half-past three for a 
reading with our servants ? " 

" Yes, with all my heart." 

(3) 



4: GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

66 1 am so pleased that you can come! We may 
expect you then ? " 

"Certainly, if the Lord will, I shall be with 

you." 

This was Saturday night. On Monday a note 
came from her asking an interview for a favorite 
cousin of hers who was in great trouble about his 
salvation. He was a man of wealth and had large 
interests in the North, and had come up to London 
on business. Until within a year before this time 
he had satisfied his conscience by a somewhat 
punctilious observance of the church rites and 
ceremonies, and thought himself a very good Chris- 
tian because he was not often absent from the church 
on Sunday mornings, and seldom failed to be at 
the communion, and never did any outrageous 
things. A year before, while on a visit in London, 
his cousin had said some things which had served 
to shake his confidence in his own goodness as a 
ground of hope for acceptance with God. And 
now this year, as together they came out of church 
on Sunday morning, some word of hers proved a 
barbed arrow to his heart, and he was in the deepest 
agony of soul. She had done what she could to 
get him off from his false foundation, and he was 
off, or at least he could find no firm footing upon it 
any more, but she had not been able to get him on 
to the sure foundation, the precious corner stone. 
Perhaps she had not tried very much to do that, as 



A BIT OF BONDAGE OF MY OWN. 5 

she seemed intent upon getting him off from the 
false rather than on to the true. A-mongst other 
things concerning him, she wrote as follows i 
a You I believe have some skill in knocking props 
from under people, and I should like to have him 
see you." If I have any skill, it is on the other 
side I am sure ; it is in pointing to the Rock 
rather -than in striking away props. Nevertheless, 
I was very glad indeed to have the visit and to do 
whatever I might find to do. The result was that 
he found peace, as much peace as he dared to 
accept, though not all that the Lord would have 
delighted to give him if he would have ventured 
more fully on Him. 

In this note mention was made of the reading 
with the servants as arranged for the Thursday 
following, and this significant sentence was added ; 
" When we get through with them, I have a bit 
of bondage of my own to talk with you about." 

What can her bondage be ? was my question to 
myself. She is evidently an earnest soul. Her 
interest for the servants of their household indi- 
cates that, and her faithfulness a year ago, and now 
to her cousin, shows that she is no idler in the 
market-place, but a diligent worker in the vine- 
yard. And more than that, her earnestness to 
have the false props stricken out from under others 
shows plainly enough that so far as final salvation 
is concerned, she herself knows very well the true 



6 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

foundation. "What then can her bondage be ? 
There was of course no use in speculating; the 
only way was to wait and see ; but I am free to 
say, that whatever might have been my interest 
in anticipation of the Thursday's visit on account 
of the servants, it was not a little Increased by 
the desire to know about the bit of bondage of 
her own, which the lady herself proposed to 
unfold. 

Time quickly passed, and at the appointed hour 
I presented myself at her father's door. The 
house I found to be both larger and more elegant 
than I had expected. It was not Parisian in 
height or glitter, but was all that a London house, 
not a palace, could well aspire to be, and that is 
about all that wealth and good taste could make it. 
In answer to the bell, a servant in livery admitted 
me, and in response to my inquiry for the lady, 
another ushered me up stairs into the drawing 
room. After a moment, the lady made her appear- 
ance and led the way through passage after passage 
into the servants' hall. On the way she took occa- 
sion to say that the up-stairs servants, much to 
her regret, were not at liberty, and therefore that 
we should have only the down-stairs servants in the 
hall that day. Judge of my surprise then when 
on entering the hall, I found it almost entirely 
encircled. As many I should think as thirty were 
present, though I did not count them. At the 



A BIT OF BONDAGE OF MY OWN. 7 

end of a long table a chair was placed for me, and 
on the table a Bible and Hymn book, and on the 
right a chair was placed for the lady. The ser- 
vants were all standing when we entered, and so 
remained until we took our seats, when they all 
sat down. Each had in hand a Bible and Hymn 
book. The service was introduced by a hymn, 
which was sung with evident delight by all ; then 
followed a brief prayer, and then we entered upon 
the main business of the hour. The moment I 
announced the chapter every one turned to it, and 
followed the reading and exposition with the closest 
attention to the end. Whenever any passage of 
Scripture was referred to in elucidation or confirma- 
tion of the exposition given, they all turned to the 
passage to verify the quotation and test the exposi- 
tion. From first to last everything indicated the 
deepest interest in the Word as the man of their 
counsel and the touchstone of- truth. Another 
hymn and prayer exhausted the hour to which the 
entire service was rigidly limited, and then when 
we arose to pass out, all arose and remained stand- 
ing in place until we were gone. This was my 
first though by no means my last reading with ser- 
vants in their own hall, and it w r as to me profoundly 
impressive. I have since that time held readings 
in palaces as compared with that house, and have 
had around me the entire household, including 
parents, children and guests, together with up- 



8 GLADNESS IF JESUS. 

stairs and down-stairs, out-o'door and in-door ser- 
vants, but have never been more deeply impressed 
than in this instance. Not, as I am bound to say, 
simply or mainly because it was the first reading in 
such a place, with such an audience, but more for 
another reason. I had learned that whatever foot- 
hold the Gospel had gained in that great household, 
it was due under God to the faith and faithfulness 
of this one lady, and had been brought about 
against much to discourage her, and not a little 
pronounced hostility to her aims and measures. 
She had renounced the world for Christ, and her 
cloister was her own father's house. She had 
become the servant of Jesus, a missionary of the 
Cross, and her own father's great household w 7 as 
her field. Her wisdom, kindness and efficiency 
had caused her to become her father's mainstay in 
all household affairs, ' and put all the servants 
necessarily and most willingly under her control. 
The butler, who is a very important man in an 
English household of this kind, became a true 
Christian, and a man of faith and prayer, and 
greatly aided her in her measures to benefit the 
others, and one by one they had been saved, until 
now only a few remained unconverted, and there 
were not more than two at most who chose to be 
absent from the weekly readings, though attendance 
was entirely voluntary. All this brought about by 
this lady, and yet she having some bondage of her 



A BIT OF BONDAGE OF MY OWN. 9 

own to talk with me ■ about ! How could it be ? 
What could it be ? 

I was not long left in doubt j our way threaded 
back again to the drawing-room ; we were served 
as soon as seated with tea and bread and butter, 
and at the first moment she began : " The bit of 
bondage that I wrote to you about, I ought not 
perhaps to mention at all. Really, I am a happy 
Christian. I do believe in Jesus. I am saved. I 
do not doubt my acceptance, and I should not be 
afraid to die at any moment if God should please 
to call me. I am given up to His service, and I 
love it. I have renounced the world and do not 
w T ant it back. You see that I do not shrink from 
work or from responsibility. I am trying to do 
my whole duty in this great household, and it is 
not hard for me, I delight to do it. My bondage, 
if I ought to call it a bondage at all, is about 
prayer and reading the Bible. Not as to Bible 
readings or prayer with the household. I can do 
both, and love to do them when wise and best, and 
am entirely free in all such work. But when I 
take the Bible to read it by myself for private 
devotions and for my own improvement, and 
then bow down to pray, it is task work. This I 
know ought not to be so. I am a child of God, 
and ought to delight in seeking my Father's face, 
and His Word ought to be sweet as honey and the 
honey comb to me, and refreshing as cool water to 



10 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

a thirsty soul, but the fact is it is not so. That is 
my bondage. That is all of it, so far as I see it or 
know it. Now what shall I do ? Is there any 
release for me? " 

" Certainly there is," said I, " for whom the 
Son makes free shall be free indeed ! And more 
than that, your bondage is not the bit you think it 
to be, but far greater. At least, when your capti- 
vity shall be turned, you will find that all you have 
ever enjoyed in prayer and in the Word, like the 
wealth of Job, will be doubled to you, for the Lord 
is able to do for you far more than you ask or think, 
and when you find the key to unlock your bit of a 
prison house, you will find a world of liberty and 
light that you never have dreamed of before. But 
leaving this for the present, tell me what is your 
hope for acceptance with God ? " 

" The finished work and perfect righteousness 
of Christ to be sure." 

" Very well, and what is your trust for pro- 
gress ? " 

" Prayer for the Holy Spirit." 

" Then you trust in Christ for freedom from 
condemnation, but in your own prayers for power 
to overcome sin and grow in knowledge and 
grace i 

" Yes, what else can I do ? " 

" You can trust in Christ for the one precisely 
as you do for the other. You do right to trust 



A BIT OF BONDAGE OF MY OWN. 11 

Him for freedom from condemnation, but you do 
wrong not to trust Him for freedom from sin and 
power to make progress as well. You have had 
one process for justification, that is faith in Jesus, 
and another for sanctification, that is faith in your 
own prayers for the Holy Ghost. Christ has been 
as good as His Word, and given you according to 
your faith. He has freed you from fear of final 
destruction, and your own prayers have done all 
for you that it is in them to do, that is, disappointed 
your expectations. Now accept the fact that 
Christ has undertaken the entire deliverance of 
your soul, alike from the power of sin as from 
condemnation for it, and rest it with Him. And 
mark my word for it, He will not leave you in 
bondage — He will put an end to your task work 
for Him, for He is no task master, but He is a 
glorious Saviour. And He will make both the 
Word and prayer to you sweeter and better than 
you have ever dared to think or hope. Reflect 
upon it a moment! What did you tell your 
cousin the other day, when he turned to you in the 
quivering agony of his soul, under the bondage of 
condemnation, and appealed to you saying, What 
shall I do ? Did you tell him to go and break his 
own bondage by prayer ? " 

"Oh, no, no, no. I told him he had trusted 
too long to his own works and his own goodness, 
until now he found himself a lost, helpless, hope- 



12 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

less sinner, bankrupt before God. And that now, 
just as he was, without one plea but that Christ's 
blood was shed for him, and that Christ bade him 
come, he must trust all to Jesus — to Jesus only, 
for already He had borne our guilt on the cross, and 
would freely justify us from all our sins." 

" Well, suppose now, he has accepted the gospel 
of justification by simple faith, and that by and by 
he comes to you again, under the bondage of dead- 
ness to God, and to His Word, and tells you 
prayer and reading alone in his closet is task work, 
an intolerable burden, and says, I cannot delight in 
it as I know I ought to do as a child of God, and 
asks you, What shall I do ? Who shall deliver 
me from the body of this deadness ? Will you 
tell him, Go break your chains by prayer and read- 
ing ? Will you not tell him, rather, that help is 
laid upon One who is mighty and able to save ; 
that Jesus is the deliverer from deadness, as well 
as from condemnation; that He can purify you 
from dead works, to serve the living God, and that 
just as he is in all his deadness, he must trust in 
Jesus, whose office it is to baptize with the Holy 
Ghost, even as it was John's office to baptize with 
water, and whose work it is to purify His own fol- 
lowers unto Himself, a peculiar people, and to 
save them from their sins ? " 

" Ah, I see, I see. I have been trusting, 
indeed, in Jesus, for freedom from condemnation, 



A BIT OF BONDAGE OF MY OWN. 13 

and have had it, but have trusted in my own 
prayers and efforts for a gradual deliverance from 
deadness, and, alas ! I have been disappointed. 
Yes, I see, I see. I ought to have trusted the 
whole work of deliverance, alike deliverance from 
sin itself, as from condemnation, to the Lord Jesus 
Christ. O Lord, let me no longer so dishonor Thee, 
let me no longer so rob myself." 

So much for the bit of bondage. In another 
chapter, we shall have the opportunity of following 
the delivered one out of the house of her bondage, 
and out of the rigors of her task work, into the 
sweet liberty of love, and the unspeakable joys of 
the new light, and the more abundant life into 
which she was now emerging. 




II. 



"DOUBLED 



OVER TO ME 
MORE." 



MORE AND 




|N the former chapter we have traced the bit 
of bondage to its end, and it now remains 
for us to follow out the new found liberty- 
through some of its early stages and happy fruits. 
We have seen that the bit of bondage was a " good 
bit " more than she who was in it thought it to be. 
And we shall soon see that her deliverance was 
into light and liberty far greater than she had 
anticipated. Like the ripple above the reef, her 
task work in the closet indicated an unseen mass 
below which she had never measured, a mass of 
rock perilous to all peace of soul and effectual 
against all progress in the voyage until it should 
be removed : and on the other hand, the joyous 
exclamation, I see ! I see ! when she perceived the 
true way by faith in Jesus in bright contrast with 
the false way of trust in her own prayers and 
efforts, was like the outcropping gold in the vein 
of quartz, a promise and a prophecy of the rich 

(14) 



DOUBLED OVER TO ME MORE AND MORE. 15 

returns before her, now that she had learned the 
power of faith for its unfolding. 

Are there not many like her, in a bondage which 
they scarcely see at all ? or who, if they do dis- 
cover it, yet think it only a bit of bondage which 
hardly should be spoken of as bondage at all? 
Are there not many who find the closet a prison, 
and prayer and reading task work, who yet think 
not of themselves as bondmen ? O, if they did 
but know it, these things indicate a captivity which 
will grow heavy and hard if they are not delivered 
from it ! Are there not many who have settled it 
in their own hearts that there is to be no complete 
deliverance from deadness until death ? as if death, 
not Christ, was to be the deliverer from deadness. 
As if Christ had not .been anointed to save his 
people from all deadness and to give them the full 
liberty of life through faith in His name ! O, that 
all could understand the power and presence of 
Christ to set us free from the power of sin and 
deadness ! Then indeed would the bondman's cry, 
* O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me 
from the body of this death,' cease and be merged 
into the shout of the liberated one, c I thank God 
through Jesus Christ our Lord.' 

We were seated in the drawing room when the 
liberated one exclaimed, I see ! I see ! At once she, 
like Philip who when he had found Jesus, remem- 
bered Nathaniel, began to think of her friends, and 



16 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

asked me if I had time to make a call or two with 
her. "For," said she, " I have two friends not 
far away, who are in greater trouble about them- 
selves than that in which you found me, and I 
should be so pleased to have you see them ! 5? 
Happily I had no engagement that afternoon, and 
we were soon seated with one of her friends in the 
drawing room of her friend's father's capacious and 
luxurious home. Not a moment was lost ; the 
subject nearest our hearts was instantly introduced, 
and very soon it became entirely plain to me that 
here was another case of bondage like the one 
before it, with this difference, that it had been so 
much more fully discovered in its height and depth 
and length and breadth by the captive herself, and 
her efforts to break it had been so ineffectual that 
she began to fear that it never could be broken 
at all. And more than that, although she had 
been calmly and firmly settled in the assurance 
that through faith in Christ her sins were all 
blotted out and her soul accepted ; yet now, the 
remaining corruption in her heart, and its incorri- 
gible resistance, and its victory over her in every 
attack upon it, whether by renewed consecrations, 
or earnest w r restlings in prayer, or strongest efforts 
to believe, began to intrude the doubt upon her 
soul whether she had not deceived herself and was 
not altogether reprobate and beyond hope. 

In the case of her friend, the discovery of the 



DOUBLED OVER TO ME MORE AND MORE. 17 

bondage in which she was held was more recent 
and less full, so that the doubt in her mind was 
whether she ought to speak- of it at all; but in 
this new instance the discovery had been made so 
long ago, and had so grown upon her, that she 
was verging to the other extreme, of doubt whether 
she ought to speak of it because it was so great and 
so hopeless. 0, how cunning the arch enemy is ! 
He will hide our chains and cover them up with 
specious reasonings as long as possible, but the 
moment they begin to become bare and galling to 
us, he seeks to drive us over into the other extreme 
of despair on account of their great strength. Thank 
God, our Lord Jesus Christ is able to save to the 
uttermost all who come to God by Him. Jesus 
breaks the heaviest yoke as easily as the lightest 
one. Jesus gives life to the dead by the word of 
His power as readily as lie restores soundness to a 
crippled limb, or healthful action to the partially 
paralyzed body. There are no dungeons of sin 
which Jesus cannot open. There are no chains of 
captivity which do not fall off the instant all other 
hope is abandoned and complete trust is reposed 
in the Saviour. 

Almost as soon as I began to hold up her own 
false processes for deliverance in contrast with the 
Lord's true one of faith in Jesus the Deliverer of 
His people, the argument was taken up by the 
newly liberated one, who began by saying, " Always 



18 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

until to-day it has appeared to me that for deliver- 
ance from death and hell we must trust alone in the 
Lord Jesus, our righteousness and our Redeemer, 
but that for victory over sin and progress in the 
divine life, we must struggle and strive and look 
for gradual release and growth just in proportion 
to the earnestness and constancy of our efforts and 
prayers ; that for justification we must look wholly 
to Christ, but for sanctification we must make 
every possible effort for ourselves, and look only to 
Christ to help us out in our own struggles for 
victory. It has seemed to me that there was one 
process for salvation from condemnation for sin and 
another for salvation from the power of sin ; but I 
see now that the Gospel gives but one process for 
both, that of trust in the Lord Jesus. It is the 
blood of Jesus that cleanseth from all unrighteous- 
ness, even. as it is the blood of Jesus that atones 
for all guilt ; and it is • the power of Jesus that 
breaks the chains of captivity to sin, even as it is 
the power of Jesus that has broken the chains of 
death and hell." 

And so she went on. I had only to sit and 
admire the freshness and force with which she 
brought forth the truth out of the newly opened 
treasury, which seemed like the lamps of the 
prophet's vision to be filled perpetually with the 
golden oil by an invisible connection with the 
exhaustless fountain of the living Saviour's own 



DOUBLED OVER TO ME MORE AND MORE. 19 

invisible presence. So soon the fruits began to 
appear ! She had feared when I first told her that 
she must abandon all her own efforts for deliverance, 
and trust the whole matter in the hands of Jesus, 
that if she should do so she would sink down into 
utter indifference and become a mere bundle of 
passivity ; but now, so soon after she had left all 
to Jesus, she had already become full of an 
unwonted power of vitality, and could hardly sit 
silently by and hear the truth unfolded by another, 
but must perforce give utterance to the testimony 
for the way of faith with which her soul was 
already beginning to overflow, a striking example 
of the truth of our Saviour's assurance, that who- 
soever believeth in Him shall himself become a 
fountain of living streams. Nor was her testimony 
in vain ; her friend was deeply moved by it. 

From this conversation we passed with the friend 
of the newly liberated one to the house of the 
third one for similar work, but it would divert us 
from our main purpose in this narrative to follow 
up these conversations ; they are introduced simply 
to show the first fruits of the broken bondage and 
new found liberty in the instance which forms the 
thread of this account. Other fruits soon followed 
in the special lines in which the bondage w T as dis- 
covered. 0, if all Christians only knew what 
floods of light Christ pours upon the Word for 
those who trust in Him alone for it, methinks there 



20 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

would be many more illuminated Bibles in the 
world, and illuminated pulpits too ! And if all 
knew the sweet effulgence shed forth upon the 
truly trustful soul in prayer, there would be fewer 
dark closets than there are ! 

I had told the captive one when she was trying 
to express her diminished estimation of her bit of 
bondage, that when the Lord should turn her 
captivity she would begin to see how great it had 
been, and that she would find her heavenlv treas- 
ures in all things doubled to her as Job's treasures 
were to him, besides finding her Bible to be a new 
book to her, and her closet a gate of heaven. 
Doubtless she looked upon what I said at the 
moment as extravagant, and if ever in any degree 
to be realized, yet only in part. How did she find 
it ? Let her own words testify. Under date a few 
days later than these interviews she writes, and 
first of all about thanks for the help rendered her 
cousin, saying, they " must go round by heaven, 
as I cannot express them," and also for the help 
given her, and then says-: 

" Everything seems doubled to me, even Jesus, 
if I may so say, and I think you will know what I 
mean ; double power, double light, double strength, 
peace, joy, love, comfort, rest. Yes, He is doubled 
to me as regards my knowledge of Him. I always 
knew or thought I knew Him as ' ehiefest amongst 
ten thousand, altogether lovely,' and from the 



DOUBLED OVER TO ME MORE AND MORE. 21 

bottom of my heart I could say, f My Beloved is 
mine and I am His,' but all this and more than 
there are words to express is doubled,, and all by a 
double trust. I need hardly to tell you with what 
a different feeling I go to my Bible. Its precious- 
ness is so great that it is difficult to believe I ever 
read it before, and it is all so plain and simple. 
Then one's life is just continued acts of faith. I 
am conscious of the power flowing from the renun- 
ciation of self and resting, trusting in Jesus, liter- 
ally pouring into my soul all the day." 

Later letters testify the same blessed realization 
of the doubling power and preciousness of the 
Word and prayer through her double trust in 
Jesus. In one of them she says, " All is doubled 
over to me more and more, more and more." 

Beloved, my account is ended, and now let me 
ask you, is there any bit of bondage of your own 
that you would like to talk about with some friend 
in confidence ? Have you any sense of task work 
in your service of our dear Lord and Master ? Is 
there anything the matter with your place of 
prayer ? Are its windows open heavenward ? Does 
the light stream freely down upon you and flood 
you vvith its sweet effulgence as you wait there 
upon the Lord ? Your Bible — is it an illuminated 
one ? Are there certain great and glorious words 
in it so full of heaven that the letters, like the 
raiment of Jesus in the Mount, are fairly lustrous 



22 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

under your eyes ? Are these great and shining 
words growing in number and increasing in the 
greatness and depth and 'height of their heavenly 
significance from time to time ? Are you walking 
in the light as the Father of Lights Himself is in 
the light, assured that the blood of His Son 
cleanses you from all iniquity ? Are you free ? 
Are you full? Are the things of God doubled 
over to you more and more ? If you have any bit 
of bondage, large or small, would you like it 
broken ? 

Trust the matter to Jesus, who is anointed to 
break every yoke and liberate every captive, and 
who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all 
you can ask or think, and He will do it for you. 





III. 

STAND IN THE GAP! MAKE UP THE 

HEDGE! 

JT is now many years since the Lord taught 
||]) me the true principle of gladness in His 
service, and from that day to this, it has 
always been joyous, sweet, precious to work the 
works of God, and do His will. Before that, 
service had in it the element of task-work ; since 
that, it has been perfect freedom. Before that, 
it often seemed hard, and the yoke galled me 
and pressed heavily upon me ; but since that, 
the yoke has been easy, and the burden has been 
light. Nay ! that does, not express it, unless it 
be added that, even in the labor of service, and 
in din of the battle, and strain of the race, I 
have found rest unto my soul. 

This lesson the dear Saviour has had to teach 
me, over and over again, to be sure, for in each 
new position, in every new contest, it is as natural 
as life to fall back on the old, false principle, and 
keep to it until the yoke begins to gall, and the 

(23) 



24 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

burden to press, and the battle to waver against us, 
when again we turn from the false to the true prin- 
ciple, and immediately the easiness, the lightness, 
the rest, the gladness again return to our souls. 
Two years before learning the true principle of 
gladness for service, it had been taught me for 
purification, and ten years before that it had been 
sweetly impressed upon me for forgiveness. The 
principle is one for all three, but the lesson of its 
application is often, not to say always, distinct in 
each case. If it be so that it has to be impressed 
upon us, over and over again, in each application, 
and so it certainly is, how could it be otherwise 
than that, in the first instance, in each application, 
it would have to be distinctly made known to us ? 
However that maybe with others, it certainly was so 
with me. The principle is faith, and faith may in this 
connection, be defined as the heart's rest in Jesus. 
The heart's rest in Jesus, will always be in re- 
spect to that which has before given it unrest. 
When anything has arisen within to create unrest, 
fear, dread, hunger, thirst, struggle, weariness, and 
the heart has turned to Jesus for rest, and found it, 
what has it found ? It has found rest in regard 
to the very thing in which it was at unrest. It is 
quite true that the sweetness of that rest spreads 
itself over everything else, and fills every chamber 
of the soul, and leaves for the time, nothing in all 



STAND IN TEE GAP! 25 

its holy domain to molest or make us afraid. It 
puts the bow of promise upon the future, blots out 
all remorse for the past, and fills the earth and the 
heavens with its sweet peace for us in the present. 

But then, it is so that, when one great necessity 
of our being has been unfolded to us until in its 
absorbing power it seems the only one, and then 
has been so sweetly and fully met by a rest of the 
heart in Jesus, that it seems for the time that all 
the great wants of the soul are met in Him, there 
may yet be other necessities equally great, which, 
when unfolded to our apprehension, are equally 
absorbing, but which for the time before, were 
lying dormant, hidden and unknown. 

And each of these in their turn may be unfolded 
to us, and apprehended by us, creating intense 
unrest, absorbing desire, oppressive weariness, 
until for each in turn, the heart comes to its pre- 
cious rest in Jesus. 

Not to speak of others of minor magnitude, or 
of the frequent recurrence of these same for re-im- 
pressment from time to time, there are three great 
general necessities upon us, and within us, which 
can be met only by the heart's rest in Jesus, but 
each of which, in its turn, we are sure to try and 
meet when unfolded to us, by some other means. 
We all need forgiveness and purification to be 
saved, and also wisdom and power for service. 



*26 GLADNESS IN JESUS, 

The one whose sins are unforgiven can never have 
rest ; carelessness he may have for the time, but 
not rest, and his unrest will be just in proportion 
to his sense of the reality of his guilt. Eest from 
his guilt can be found only in Jesus. 

The one whose sins have been forgiven, but in 
whom the dominion of sin has not been destroyed, 
though he may have perfect rest from condemna- 
tion, can never be at rest from the dominion of sin, 
until he finds that also in Jesus. 

And the saved one who knows the gladness of 
rest in Jesus, both for forgiveness and for purifica- 
tion, will yet be a burden-bearer in the service of 
Jesus, unless he has learned the rest of the soul in 
Jesus, for service as well as for salvation. If 
called upon to put in one word, the one principle 
by which all that God has for us in himself, and 
in his service, the one principle of gladness to the 
soul, that word would be 

Faith. 
The heart's rest in Jesus. 

And if called upon to embody in three words, 
the three great necessities of the soul upon earth, 
to be met each in the same way, by the heart's 
rest in Jesus, I should say that they are 

Pardon. 

Purity. 

Power. 



STAND IN THE GAP! 27 

And if called upon to put the doctrines of the 
Gospel, in regard to each, in the most cojacise pos- 
sible form, it would be this : — 

Justification by Faith. 
Sanctification by Faith. 
Service by Faith. 

I sat down to give some account of how the 
Lord led me into the experimental apprehension 
of the third of these lessons of faith ; and although 
I have already been impelled to this comparison of 
the three with each other, I cannot, even now, 
turn to the direct purpose in hand, until I have 
recurred for a moment, to the sweet, sweet, pre- 
cious, precious manner in which the Lord led me 
into the other two, and to the singular gladness of 
each in its turn. 

The Lord is a wonderful teacher, and the school 
of Christ is a wonderful school. O what an 
amazingly sweet and precious lesson was that first 
one of the forgiveness of sins, and with what gen- 
tle, genial power it was impressed upon me. The 
Lord arrested me in the very act and deed of try- 
ing to overthrow all faith in God, as a personal 
being, and in His work of salvation in the human 
heart, in the mind of one who had in his boyhood 
found the rest of his heart in Jesus for pardon, 
and the Lord made the testimony of this very one. 



28 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

to what had been done for him in his boyhood, the 
means' of overturning my pantheistic sophisms, 
and of bringing me into the agonies of despair 
under the load of my unforgiven sins. Then, 
when my burden became a terrible one, causing 
sleepless nights and weary days of anguish and 
darkness, He led me, like another pilgrim, to the 
cross, and at the sight of His own atoning love my 
burden rolled off and was gone. O what an hour 
was that ! Let all the other hours of my existence, 
now and evermore, make obeisance to that glad 
hour, for it was the birth-time of gladness for 
them all ! The love of Jesus, as it beamed on me 
from His own crucified form, and benign words, 
dying as He was, in agonies untold, under the load 
of our sins, yet breathing out a welcome to Para- 
dise to the penitent malefactor dying at His side, 
and a prayer for forgiveness to those who were 
crucifying Him, and mocking Him in His dying 
moments; — this love of Jesus, and His blood 
shed for me, for the remission of my sins, O how 
perfectly it blotted out the dark record of an 
unloving life in the past, and how it filled me with 
gladness in Jesus ! O how it melted my heart ! 
O how it changed my soul ! What responsive 
love it called forth to our God who had so loved 
the world ! What sweet rest of heart it afforded 
in Jesus, from the dread of the wrath to come ! 



STAND IK THE GAP! 29 

And then, too, in the hallowed light of the love 
of God, shed abroad in my own heart, and the 
transformation it produced, I saw how all other 
Christians were also transformed, and O how lovely 
did the Christian character appear to me ! O how 
my heart went out in love to them all ! 

But the Bible — the change in the Bible was 
still greater to my view. Its precepts and prom- 
ises, which before had been as bitter and biting as 
a broken law, with its overhanging wrath, were 
now as sweet as heaven. 

The earth and the heavens too, like Christians 
and the Bible, were transfigured before me, and 
appeared in the shining garments and beaming 
smiles of love divine, all love excelling. Every leaf 
and flower, and all the carpet of green, and tapestry 
of foliage, and every living thing on the earth, and 
in the sea and air, seemed to be sending up sweet 
incense of praise to God for man, whilst the heavens, 
in dews and showers and light, seemed to be drop- 
ping down grace and peace from God to man. 

Thus the Lord taught me the great, sweet lesson 
of the rest of the heart in Jesus, for forgiveness, 
and for the time it met every want of my soul. 
Yet, in process of time, unrest came again , a new 
want arose. Forgiveness did not satisfy me. I 
wanted the dominion of sin destroved. Purifica- 
tion, not less than pardon, I saw to be required, 



30 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

both by the Word of God, and the demands of 
my own conscience ; and, under the power of the 
law of God, assented to and applauded by my own 
mind, as holy, and just, and good, I became 
thoroughly awakened to my own wretched bond- 
age to sin, and more bitterly than in the day of 
conviction ten years before, I now cried out for deliv- 
erance. The wrath of God for sin, as declared in 
the first of Romans, had been heavy upon me ten 
years before, but now the bondage of sin, as illus- 
trated in the seventh of Romans, was heavier still, 
and I experienced the full bitterness of soul which 
wrings out the cry, O wretched man that I am, 
who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? 
But O, when the Lord led me into rest of heart in 
Jesus, for sanctification, how sweet it was. What 
an hour was that, and what a place. If ten years 
before the open vision of Christ on the cross had 
made the little school house, where it was shown 
me, the gate of heaven, this place where now I 
saw Jesus in His invisible presence with me, face 
to face, though only a widow's cottage on earth, 
was quite within the walls of heaven. O what a 
revelation was that to me, when, in the very name 
of (i Jesus — so called because He should save His 
people from their sins," His office as my 
emancipator from sin, was embodied ! O how my 
soul was gladdened with assurance that the work 



STAND IN THE GAP! 31 

would be done, that I should be purified unto God, 
and made zealous of good works, and should be 
kept by the power of God, and presented faultless 
before the throne in the great day, when I saw that 
it was the work and the delight of the Saviour to 
do this for us. Henceforth, in this matter, my 
soul was at rest, and 0, what a sweet peace flowed 
in upon me, and overflowed me. Then I could 
realize the preciousness of the words of Christ, 
i( My peace I give unto you," and of the proph- 
et's wonderful words to Christ, speaking to Him 
through the prophetic trumpet, down through the 
intervening centuries, u Thou wilt keep him in 
perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because 
he trusteth in Thee." Henceforth, too, the Bible, 
precious as it had been to me before, received a 
double illumination to my apprehension. A mighty 
vein before hidden, now unfolded itself, insomuch 
that the Word of God, from Genesis to Revela- 
tion, was again a new book to me. 

Here, again, for this new necessity, my heart 
had found its rest, and every want was satisfied. 
Not a thought entered my mind for the time, nor 
for months thereafter, that deep down in my own 
soul, yet another great want was lying, all unseen 
and unknown. Yet so it was. How it came to 
view, and came to be met by a new application of 
the old principle, remains to be told. 



32 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

The Lord by His own beautiful chain of prov- 
idences, brought me from what was then our 
Western border, exceedingly rude, into a school 
of the prophets, in Ohio, on the hills overlooking 
the Queen City, where comparatively high culti- 
vation prevailed. Here I found myself amongst 
some three-score sons of the prophets, not one of 
whom seemed to have got beyond the lesson of 
forgiveness. ' One, and only one, I found who had 
heard about the rest of the heart in Jesus for puri- 
fication, and was praying for it, but he was blind 
as Bartimeus as to the way. 

As I mingled with this interesting company of 
young men, brought together from the East and 
the West, the North and the South, all of them 
soon to go back again to their own kindred, and 
then to be scattered abroad as ambassadors of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, some of them in farthest lands, 
my heart swelled with the thought of what they 
would accomplish if they only knew the secret of 
purity, and could go out in the fullness of the 
blessings of the gospel. 

But how could this ever come to pass ? Who 
should set it before them so that they should see it 
as a reality within reach ? O, how my own insuf- 
ficiency came out to my view ! Yet who else was 
there to do it ? My early efforts in this direction 
were not attended with flattering success, and I 



STAND IN THE GAP! 33 

was brought to my face, under the pressure of two 
great desires in reference to the one great object. 
One was for wisdom to know how to speak and to 
act, so as to win my way for the truth, into the 
hearts of the students, and the other was for the 
power of God to carry home the truth to their 
hearts, and bring them to the acceptance of the 
secret rest of heart in Jesus, for purification from 
sin. 

These desires grew upon me from day to day, 
inconsequence of the growing . difficulties in the 
way. Whilst some of the students were inclined 
to look at the subject, and inquire into it, and like 
the more noble Bcreans, search the Scriptures to 
see whether these things were so, others were more 
than willing to set aside any such pressure, as the 
admission of the possible truth of this matter 
would bring upon them, to solve the question, and 
at once they rejected it, and began to whisper sus- 
picions of heresy, and as my aspirations were not 
overcome by the increasing difficulties, my sense of 
the necessity for divine wisdom and power, was 
deepened, and my yearnings of heart greatly 
increased. 

Meanwhile, the Lord interposed in such a way 
as to glorify His holy name. As the enemy could 
not be easily taken in front, he took them as it 
were by ambush. There was one thing in which 



34 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

we could all agree — the desirableness of a genuine 
revival of religion — and the Lord moved the heart 
of the veteran President of the Seminary, whom 
we all loved and admired, to commence preaching 
with a special view to this end. The students 
entered heartily into his views, and soon there was 
a general movement in this direction. The ear- 
nestness was real and growing, yet the results did 
not meet expectation. True there were not many 
in the community around us, who were not already 
converted, and therefore the field, though open, 
was not large. Yet even the few hopefully within 
reach, seemed to escape every arrow, and remain 
unmoved under every appeal. 

My own heart was so oppressed with the two- 
fold desire, already mentioned, that I gave up 
eating anything but the plainest food, indeed, 
almost everything except bread and potatoes. The 
example of Daniel incited me to this, and, like 
him, I actually ".ate no pleasant bread for three 
whole weeks," and gave myself up to prayer the 
while. The example of Solomon, in asking wis- 
dom of God, was a great encouragement to me to 
seek wisdom at the hands of God, for I reasoned 
that if God not only gave him what he asked, but 
was so well pleased with him for asking it, as to 
give liira riches, honor, and length of days besides, 
he would not withhold wisdom from me. Then, 



STAND W TEE GAP! 35 

too, I saw, how clearly, that the power of God 
necessary to overcome the prejudices in the way, 
and give free course to the truth of full salvation, 
would, if granted, so glorify His name there, and 
so prepare the young men to glorify Him else- 
where in days to come, that I felt strong confidence 
to plead for it, and wait on the Lord until it should 
come. 

The twenty-first clay of my abstinence, came on 
the day set apart for prayer for colleges. The 
dinner hour of that day was given up, by a fellow 
student and myself, to prayer instead of eating. 
We were bowed together in my room. As the 
hour drew to its close, whilst waiting before the 
Lord, He sweetly unfolded to me the fact, that 
Jesus with me, was my wisdom, and that Jesus 
tvith me, was my power. I had been seeking 
imparted wisdom and power, in myself, but I 
had found embodied wisdom and power in Jesus. 
My heart was at rest — at rest in Jesus. I saw that 
with such a Saviour always at hand, to counsel and 
direct me, I need not ever lack wisdom for any 
emergency into which He would bring me, and I 
saw that in the hands of such a Leader and Com- 
mander, His cause could not suffer, or His follow- 
ers lack any amount of power for whatever work 
He should give them to do. 

O, how sweet was the rest of my heart now in 



36 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

Jesus ! My burden was all gone. My soul was 
all buoyant. My mourning was ended, and my 
heart was singing from morning till night, and 
from night until morning, when I was awake. 
Thus it was, that my wonderful Teacher taught me 
the lesson of service by faith, and now mark the 
results. I had been standing alone in the knowl- 
edge of sanctification by faith, and had been over- 
whelmed with my responsibilities and desires. 
Now I still stood alone, but had turned over all 
my responsibilities upon my great Burden-bearer, 
and had a heart as light as if there had been noth- 
ing to do or desire — yea, far lighter, for it was full 
of delight. Thenceforth, I no more carried the 
burden of the Lord's work, but He carried me, 
burden and all, and my burden was the burden of 
joy. And what did the Lord do as to His own 
work, and how was it as to my wisdom in the 
difficulties before me ? 

The very next evening my fellow student, who 
had before been convinced, came to see the way 
clearly, and found his heart's rest in Jesus, for 
purification from sin. 

The next day a devout Christian woman, in the 
family of one of the professors, was led into the 
same sweet rest, and the next clay, which was Sun- 
day, a young man called upon me to arrange 
certain appointments, of which notice was to be 



STAND IN THE GAP! 37 

given at morning service, and when this was done, 
I' mentioned to him the happy experience of the 
student, and also of the lady, and, seeing that he 
looked a little blank, I said, " You know that 
there is such an experience for the Christian, do 
you not ? " 

"No," said he, "I do not." 

I rejoined, " There is, and I will tell you, in a 
word, what it is. It is full trust in Jesus to save 
us from our sins." 

I saw the arrow take effect. He left me. In 
the afternoon of that same day, as we were about 
to separate, after finishing certain mission work in 
which we were engaged, he said, with a sad eager- 
ness indescribable, " I must have the experience 
you told me about this morning, or I shall die." 
The next day, whilst we were seated in his room, 
he was suddenly led to see the truth, and was so 
overwhelmed by it that he could not speak. The 
Holy Spirit came upon him in the rush of His 
power, so great that he lost the use of his tongue' 
for a time, and when he began to speak, it was in 
incoherent ejaculations, and at last, when he had 
come to use his tongue again, as you will judge, it 
was another tongue altogether. His language had 
been that of despair, now it was that of a bound- 
less joy. 

By and by I called with him, upon the presi- 



38 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

dent, at the house of one of the professors, where 
he was spending the evening, and the impression 
produced by the change in this young man, was 
so wonderful, that as we were leaving, one followed 
me and called me aside, and enjoined me to say 
nothing exciting, lest reason should be dethroned. 
In this young man the Lord had chosen the 
one of the whole three-score, who, on account of 
his stability, culture and position, would, by the 
change wrought in him, produce the greatest im- 
pression upon the whole community. This was 
God's own specimen of His work, and from that 
day, forward, the work went bravely on, through 
the remaining weeks of the term. Many were 
led to find rest of heart in Jesus, for purity, as 
they had done before for pardon ; and I found, for 
all the work the Lord gave me to do, and for every 
difficulty He laid upon me to solve, that my ever 
present, ever ready Counsellor, was my never fail- 
ing wisdom. Thus, it was, that our glorious 
Leader and Commander caused me to stand in the 
gap, and make up the hedge in the critical day, 
and taught me the precious, lifelong lesson, of 

Service by Faith. 



IV. 




THE UNHAPPY SEVENTHS AND THE 
HAPPY EIGHTHS. 

S^T a dinner party in London, given by one 
of England's titled men high in official 
position, two ladies of decided character 
and superior culture met for the first time. Of 
these two ladies and what afterwards passed between 
them, there are some things to be told, but first a 
few words concerning the party at which they 
became acquainted with each other, and somewhat 
more about the gentleman who gave it. 

The company invited was not numerous, but 
this served to bring the few nearer together. 

The dinner, in variety and bounteousness, was 
quite Christmas-like, and in cooking and service it 
was in Old England's very best style. Therefore 
there was no want of good things to enjoy, and 
happily the company was made up of those who 
have not, through indulgence and pampering, de- 
stroyed the zest for enjoyment given by that prince 
of all sauces, the bishop's — a good appetite. But 

(39) 



40 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

the real charm of the dinner did not consist in the 
dinner itself, excellent, abundant, and elegant as it 
was, nor yet in the bishop's sauce by which it was 
spiced, but in something better. In fact, the true 
feast of the evening commenced in the drawing room 
before they went out to the dinner, and continued 
after their return and on until the last parting words 
were spoken. And, taken all in all, the party 
seems to me to have been very much an Anglo- 
Saxon reproduction of the supper mentioned by 
the Evangelist, at which our dear Saviour was the 
principal one of the circle. 

We may cheat ourselves by calling our English 
and American evening feasts dinners — in Ger- 
man phrase, mittag essens, mid-day meals, — but 
if they come at a time nearer to midnight than mid- 
day, as they do, are they not simply suppers ? Yet 
it is of less consequence what we call them than 
what we make them, and when we give them than 
whether we have or have not the Saviour at them. 
It is good to be in any assembly, large or small, 
gathered expressly to worship, if the worship be 
simple and true, and if the sacred fire descends and 
fills all the place, but there is a wonderful charm 
when, at the festal board or in the social circle, the 
Lord himself is in every heart and on every tongue, 
and all speak like Bunyan's market woman, <l as 
though joy did make them speak," and all hear as 



THE SAPPY EIGHTHS. 41 

though joy did make them hear, and it was much 
so at this party. Nevertheless, there were two 
phases — rather, I may say, two stages of Christian 
advancement most distinctly represented there. 
One in unhappy accord with Romans Seventh, and 
the other in joyous harmony with Romans Eighth. 
The happy Eighths were so in preponderance at 
the party, that the unhapppy Sevenths held their 
peace pretty much, with only now and then a sad 
signal showing their unconscious distress. Subset 
quently, however, as we shall presently see, the po- 
sition of the Sevenths was most clearly developed 
in a conversation between the two ladies already 
mentioned. 

• The host belonged to the happy Eighths. No 
one could be long in his society without discover- 
ing this. In fact, he did not hesitate, on fitting 
occasions, to tell how he had been led out of the 
Seventh into the Eighth chapter position. It seems 
that after he had been brought to a sweet rest of 
heart in the Lord for the forgiveness of sins, and after 
he had received the precious witness of the Spirit 
to his acceptance with the Father, he walked a 
number of years in the full assurance of final sal- 
vation, and thought himself all right in the main 
as to his position for progress in the divine life. 
Suddenly, however, one day in church, whilst earn- 
estly praying that the Lord would baptize him with 



42 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

the Holy Spirit, he was caused to see his sins as he 
had never seen them before. At that moment, if 
he had given utterance to the deep emotions of his 
heart, his cry would have been in spirit if not 
in words of the prophet Isaiah at sight of the- 
vision of the Lord on his throne : " Wo is me ! I 
am undone ! I am a man of unclean lips ! and I 
dwell amidst a people of unclean lips ! " 

His heart and life appeared to him under a new 
light. He saw now as he had not seen before, how 
selfishness and sensuality had entered into all his 
motives, and feelings, and personal habits ; how his 
house, instead of being held sacred to the Lord, had 
been regarded simply as his own, and often given up 
to the world and its pleasures and ambitions ; how 
utterly defective he had been in his social influence, 
and how he had accepted and held office for him- 
self, and used his position for his own profit and 
power in so far as he could without injury to any 
one else, instead of regarding it as the gift of God 
to enable him by so much the more to benefit others 
and glorify God. O ! how he now abhorred him- 
self! 

Then came the question, — Shall all this be 
changed ? Can it be changed ? To begin living 
wholly to the Lord in heart and life in every sphere, 
personal, domestic, social and official, would, as it 
seemed to him, make him a recluse to all the world. 



THE HAPPY EIGHTHS. 43 

take all the sunshine from his pathway, and give 
him a slave's life of it forever. He drew back 
from the undertaking, and in a moment bitterness 
filled his soul. He rose up against God as a hard 
master and against his service as a hard service, and 
in the hot haste of the moment said, " I will give 
it all up, and live as I did before I began thinking 
of these things : as if there were no God. " No sooner 
had he said this to himself than the conviction 
settled down in his mind that the Holy Spirit had 
abandoned him — perhaps forever. He left the 
house of God one of the unhappiest of men. His 
home, his beautiful home, when he reached it, 
how changed ! His position and prospects in life, 
O how dark they were ! The light had gone out 
of his own soul, dense clouds covered his skies, 
and a great and terrible tempest lowered about him, 
and he saw no way through it to safety and sun- 
shine beyond. Happily he was not abandoned of 
God, as he supposed, but was saved from complete 
despair, and soon led to try and extricate himself, 
and if possible induce a return of the blessed Com- 
forter to his soul. 

Then commenced a course of struggles : now 
by re-consecrations, now by prayer and fasting, 
now by entering upon a campaign for the salva- 
tion of others, together with visiting the sick, 
the bereaved, the afflicted, all in the vain hope by 



44 GLADNESS IN* JESUS. 

this means to win back the lost Presence, and 
come up into the fullness of the blessings of the 
gospel of peace. During this period of varied 
struggles, which draggedsits weary length through 
many terrible months, the tempter was busy with 
him to make him overstep the mark. First, by 
stripping himself and his house of everything com- 
fortable and ornamental. His noble wife could 
testify, if she would, how much it cost her to resist 
the devil for him in her own domain. As if strip- 
ping off the outside and converting one's habitation 
into a voluntary prison with bare walls and floors, 
and with doors bolted and windows cross-barred 
with scruples of conscience, could have any power 
to create a heaven in one's own soul. But one of 
the sorest temptations was to give up his office be- 
cause he was unfit for it, and because it hindered 
him, and because he thought such a sacrifice on his 
part might induce the return of the Holy Spirit to 
his soul. 

In the course of these struggles he verified 
to the letter and to the full the seventh of Ro- 
mans, lie had been after his conversion for 
years, alive without the law. Then, in that 
scene in the church, the law had come in its 
searching power and high requirements, and sin 
revived and he had died. Then, in all that had 
followed, he had found that when he would do 



THE HAPPY EIGHTHS, 45 

good, evil was present with him. His understand- . 
ing was enlightened and approved the law as holy, 
just and good, but against this law of his mind his 
bondage in sin was too strong. He could will, in- 
deed, but could not perform, and the daily cry of 
his soul under this cruel bondage, was in substance: 
"0! wretched man that I am! Who shall de- 
liver me from this body of death ? " 

At last he emerged from this condition by a 
process of which he was not fully aware at the 
time he was passing through it. Slowly, and 
almost unconsciously to himself, hope of deliver- 
ance through any process of his own, died out 
until in * the end it was dead. He was really 
dead to hope in himself. Then, by degrees, im- 
perceptible to his consciousness, hope began again 
to revive, but now no longer in anything he could 
do or be, or gain by his own processes, but in 
Christ. 

So it came to pass that he had died unto him- 
self, and then, when this was complete and self 
was in the grave, he had, in less time, it may 
be, than the sojourn of our Saviour's dead body in 
the tomb, risen again in newness of life in Christ. 
And that not merely in the degree he had been 
alive once without the law, in the days when he 
knew only the heart's rest in Jesus for pardon, but 
in the higher degree and the more glorious plane 



46 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

of the rest of his heart in Jesus for purity and for 
progress to the end. 

Now he could answer his own former cry of 
despair, " O, wretched man that I am ! who shall 
deliver me from this body of death ? " by his 
own exultant thanksgiving, " I thank God through 
Jesus Christ our Lord ! " And now he saw that, 
while under the law, he could indeed serve 
the law of God with his mind, but with the 
flesh only the law of sin, and that not until he 
had come under grace and in Christ by the 
Holy Spirit, could he fulfill the law of God by 
the impulsion of love. He had come into a new 
position. Formerly he had been for sanctification, 

In Self-dependence, 
On Responsibility, 
Under Law. 

Now he was 

In Christ, 

On the Promises, 

Under Grace. 

From this new position he looked back upon all 
the way in which the Lord had led him, with won- 
der and adoration. The deep mystery of « his 
dark days was now solved, and the solution was 
precisely that which the Apostle has given us in 



THE HAPPY EIGHTHS. 47 

the seventh of Romans, taken with the sixth and 
eighth. His varied experience was, in fact, the 
seventh and eighth of Eomans over again, in the 
dress of the present hour. Under the law, on his 
own responsibility, in self-dependence, he was one 
of the unhappy Sevenths. Under grace, on the 
promises in the Lord Jesus Christ, he was one of 
the happy Eighths, and the transition from the one 
to the other was that given in the sixth chapter — 
death to self, life in Christ by faith ; or death to 
sin and life to righteousness through faith in Jesus. 
He found the first half expressed, too, in a way that 
would have been impossible to any one who had 
not himself passed through the same, in that sweet 
hymn so-called — ballad, rather — written by John 
Newton : 

•' I asked the Lord that I might grow 
In faith and love, and every grace ; 
Might more of His salvation know, 
And see Him face to face. 

'Twas He who taught me thus to pray ; 

And He, I trust, has answered prayer, 
But it has been in such a way 

As almost drove me to despair. 

I hoped that in some favored hour, 

At once He'd answer my request ; 
And by His love's constraining power, 

Subdue my sins and give me rest. 



48 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

Instead of this He made me feel 

The hidden evils of my heart ; 
And let the angry powers of hell, 

Assault my soul in every part. 

Yea more ; with his own hand he seemed 

Intent to aggravate my woe : 
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed, 

Blasted my gourd, and laid me low." 

Precisely so : crossed all the fair designs he 
schemed, brought all his processes to nought, 
blasted his gourds and laid him low. Even so 
it ever is, ever must be ! Out of self into Christ ; 
out from under law, under grace ; out from our 
own responsibilities, on the promises. 

Now in his new position the Seventh of Romans 
was all his own, not as a present experience, but as 
a vivid history full of instruction and warning ; and 
the Eighth was his also, all his. The glorious 
Eighth — a present experience! 0, how sweetly 
its precious treasures unfolded to his apprehension. 
JVo more condemnation. This, though not new, 
but known already in his earlier experience, was 
now tenfold more precious since he had learned 
the deeper guilt of sin and sweeter grace of Jesus. 
No more minding the flesh, but the Spirit, be- 
cause the Spirit in his heart, through faith in Jesus 
as abiding in him and he in Jesus, had set him free 
from the power of sin. 



THE HAPPY EIGHTHS. 49 

This was all new to him, and 0, how glorious ! 
JVo more the service of a slave, but of a 
son and an heir, a joint heir with Jesus, and 
that by the spirit of adoption in his own soul 
witnessing to the reality in the heart of God. 
No more the trembling uncertainty of a soul stand- 
ing in self dependence on its own responsibility 
under law, but the glorious assurance of one in 
Jesus, on the promises, under grace. 

And the future. O what a glorious certainty 
and what a certain glory shone from it, lighting all 
his earthly pathway with the glory of its hope ! If 
called, then justified ; if justified, then sanctified ; 
and if sanctified, then glorified in the loving pur- 
pose of the Triune God. And who should con- 
demn, if it was God who justified, and who should 
separate him from Christ, if Christ so loved him. 
Who could cut off the cords of the Redeemer's 
love and let him fall into perdition ? Who ? Not 
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor 
things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor 
depth, nor any other creature. 




V. 




IS IT ROBBERY, OR IS IT ENRICH- 

MENT? 

'HE inexorable clock rung out, all too soon 
for the happy company at the titled London- 
er's house, the hour at which good Christians abroad 
seek their homes, and the party dispersed. The two 
ladies mentioned as having, on this occasion, met 
for the first time, arranged before separating, to 
meet again soon. One of them, the wife of a dis- 
tinguished London clergyman, invited the other, 
who was also a minister's wife, not of the great 
metropolis, to lunch with her at her own house 
near by. The invitation was gladly accepted, and 
the earliest day for which both were free was 
agreed upon for it. 

The day for the lunch came. The greeting was 
cordial. The subject so fascinating at the party 
was resumed, There were no others present to 
come between ; none to talk, none to listen ; no 
men to engross conversation, nothing to hinder, 

(50) 



*\. 



IS IT BOBBERY, OR ENRICHMENT? 51 



and they soon reached a mutual, full and frank 
confession of faith about the matter. 

The hostess began by saying, " I could not 
quite go with all that was said the other evening, 
could you ?" 

To which her guest answered by asking what 
she referred to especially. 

She replied, " Why several things, but particu- 
larly the views expressed about the Seventh of 
Romans. I must confess that of all chapters in 
the Bible, that is to me the most precious. It is 
my experience exactly, and I believe it was St. 
Paul's ; do not you ? " 

" Once I did, indeed, find my experience in the 
seventh, but now I find it in the eighth chapter, 
and my views of St. Paul's position have under- 
gone a change. Three years or more after my 
conversion, I passed through a second transition, 
quite as marked at the time, and fully as great in 
its influence upon my life as my conversion, and 
since that I do not find my condition, as I did 
before, in the seventh chapter." 

st But was your conversion clear and decided ? " 

" Yes, indeed : so clear that I have never had 
a serious doubt of it. I used to think I ought to 
doubt because older and better Christians did. 
And the nearest I ever came to serious doubts of 
the matter, was from the question whether I ought 



52 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

not to doubt because I could not do it. My life 
had been, in girlhood, gay, giddy and self-right- 
eous. Once at death's door before my conversion, 
I congratulated myself that I had never done any- 
thing really bad, and had done a great deal that 
was good, and should if I died that night, go 
straight to heaven. But God, great in mercy, 
arrested me, convinced me, humbled me, filled me 
with a sense of my sin, and guilt, and made me 
cry unto Him for salvation. And when I gave 
my heart to Him, He by His Holy Spirit, revealed 
Christ to me so sweetly as my sin-bearer and lov- 
ing Saviour, that I felt my sins all forgiven, and 
knew that Jesus was mine." 

" Then what ? " 

" Then I was very, very happy, O how happy, 
in the love of the Lord, and in the hope of heaven. 
And O how I loved the Bible and prayer, and 
Christians. Yes, and sinners too. I was never 
tired of telling the sweet story of how Jesus saved 
me, and changed all my views and feelings. In- 
deed, my most intimate friends thought I was 
crazy, and said so to each other and to me, because 
I was so taken up with the things of religion, and 
so enthusiastic about them." 

tc But you lost this first love after awhile, did 
you not ? " 

a Never. I did indeed fall into divers tempta- 



IS IT BOBBEBY, OB ENBICHMENTV 53 

tions and snares of the devil, and often and often 
did things which grieved me to the heart, because 
I felt them to be so grievous to my Heavenly 
Father and my blessed Saviour, but I always went 
quickly to Jesus for pardon and blessing, and 
never failed to find it. My life was one of ups 
and downs, sinnings and repentings, but not of 
backsliding from God." 

" Yes, and how is it now ? Do you not now 
find it the same ? Are you not now in this same 
way ? Are you not, as St. Paul says, ' carnal, 
sold under sin.' When you would do good, is not 
evil present with you ? Is it not easy to will, but 
often impossible to do right ? Do you not with 
the mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh 
the law of sin ? And is not the daily cry of your 
soul, O wretched one that I am, who shall deliver 
me from the body of this death ? I confess to you 
frankly that this is my case, and I cannot but be- 
lieve it was Paul's." 

" No, no, beloved, it is not my case, and I can- 
not think it was Paul's. No, no. I find it now 
as easy to do as to will, and my daily cry is one of 
thanksgiving to God who has set me free from the 
law of sin and death by the law of life and love 
in my heart, wrought and written there in abiding 
power by the Holy Spirit, through faith in Jesus 
Christ. And I cannot say c O wretched one that I 

E 



54 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

am,' for I am happy ; nor exclaim, ( Who shall 
deliver me,' for I am delivered ; and I cannot for a 
moment think that the apostle was less happy, or 
less free than I am, or that he was in a lower 
position than our dear Lord has graciously led 
me to accept." 

" What! my dear sister, you would not rob me 
of this most precious chapter in the Bible, would 
you ? O, it affords me a world of comfort. In- 
deed, I should despair if I did not think St. Paul 
was all his life long just where I am. It would 
be cruel of you to take away this consolation if you 
could do it, but you cannot." 

Here they were, face to face, two sisters in 
Christ, with the apostle and his words between 
them. Which was right ? Yes, and they repre- 
sent two great wings of the church of Christ on 
earth to-day. Which is right ? As to their ex- 
perimental position, which ? 

Experimentally, this whole matter is one of 
simple testimony. It is a matter of test, and so of 
testimony. Anything experimental, whether in 
spiritual or material things, is a thing of test. They 
who test it are in so far qualified, and they only; to 
testify concerning it. So in this thing. They, 
and only they, who have put it to the test, are 
qualified to testify for or against it as a fact in ques- 
tion. Suppose I call up these two ladies upon the 



IS IT BOBBERY, OB ENBICHMENT? 55 

stand as witnesses, and you sit as judge in the case. 
I put the question to them, " Is it or is it not true 
that there is for the Christian an emancipation from 
continuance in sin, corresponding to the transition 
from the position of the wretched bondman of the 
seventh chapter of Romans to that of the happy 
freeman of the eighth ? " 

The hostess answers, " No, there is not. 5 ' 

The guest answers, " Yes, there is." 

I ask the hostess, " How do you know there is 
not ? Have you put the matter to the test yourself 
in your own case ? " 

Her answer is, u No, I have not." 

And I ask again, " Then what do you know 
about it ? Do you know anything at all ? " 

The answer is, si No ; all I do know about it is 
that I do not know anything about it ; that is 
to say, I do not know anything experimentally 
about it." 

So I turn to you as judge, and you tell her to 
stand aside as one wholly unqualified as a witness, 
simply because in a thing which is wholly a matter 
of experience, she has no experience whatever. 

Then I ask you, "Shall I call up the whole 
wing of the church represented by her, and take 
their testimony ? " 

And you answer, tl No ; for they have no testi- 
mony to give. It is not opinions we want in this 



56 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

case, but knowledge, and really they know nothing 
at all about it." 

Turning now to the guest, I ask her, " How do 
you know that this emancipation from sinning is 
real?" 

She answers, " I have tested the matter and 
found it to be true." 

Then I call up the cloud of witnesses forming 
the wing of the church represented by her, and 
put the same question and get the same answer, 
and turn to you for your verdict, and you say, 

u The testimony is overwhelming, the thing is 
true ; it cannot be otherwise." 

Is it robbery, then, or is it enrichment, when 
this stronghold of fallacy and of the father of all 
fallacy, is pulled down to give place to the strong- 
hold of salvation from sinning ? Here, for this 
time, we rest the question ; only, however, to re- 
sume it at the next opportunity, for we need to 
come directly to the very stuff oat of which this 
stronghold of fallacy is reared, and to see that it is 
indeed the veriest stuff; and this will we do, if the 
Lord will. 

Here they are face to face, at the lunch-table, 
hostess and guest, with St. Paul and his words 
between them, and they represent two wings of the 
Church of our Lord Jesus Christ in the earth. 
The one confesses herself a wretched bondwoman, 



IS IT BOBBERY, OR ENRICHMENT? 57 

.sold under sin, and holds that in this she is where 
St. Paul was. The other confesses that the Lord 
has delivered her from this bondage, has bought 
and has brought her freedom from sinning, so that 
now she is a happy, free woman, and she holds 
that in this she is where St. Paul was. And the 
question is, which is right ? 

In so far as the fact of an experimental transi- 
tion from bondage to freedom, is concerned, we 
have already seen that as a matter of test and of 
testimony, the proof is, and of necessity must be, 
all on the one side. Those who have not tested 
the fact cannot testify against it, for they are not 
in position to know anything about it, while those 
who have tested it, and do know all about it, do, 
with one consent, witness to it as true. 

But the gist of the question is this : — Did the 
Apostle really speak of himself, and set forth his 
own personal experimental position in the seventh 
of Romans, from the seventh verse to the end ? 
If he did, one of three things must be accepted as 
true : either that the cloud of witnesses who testify 
to the fact of having themselves passed through 
the experimental transition implied between the 
position of the wretched bondman of the seventh, 
and that of the happy freeman of the eighth chap- 
ter, have all taken a great step in advance of the 
Apostle himself, which is not for a moment admis- 



58 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

sible in thought, or that the two positions so dia- 
metrically opposite to each other, are yet recon- 
cilable, and that the Apostle was in fact in both of 
them at once, or that all the testimony given to 
prove the fact of the advanced position of the free- 
man in Christ Jesus, is fallacious, and all the wit- 
nesses, St. Paul included, are deceived. 

We will not for a moment argue the question, 
whether the living witnesses of to-day have attained 
the great step in advance of St. Paul. Very many 
of them have made the transition by means of the 
Apostle's own blessed words, and find now, every 
day of their lives, the sweetest comfort, and the 
greatest strength, from his instructions. Next 
after the words of our dear Lord himself, as spoken 
to the disciples, and to the Father in their behalf, 
and the sweet words of the loving John, there is 
no part of all the written word of God upon which 
these advanced Christians feed with such delight 
and profit, as the Epistles of St. Paul, and that 
simply because in them he unfolds what God has 
unfolded to him, of the precious realities of the 
higher life, into which the Lord has brought them, 
in delivering them from the bondage of sin into 
the glorious liberty enjoyed by the sons of God, 
who have thus come to their majority, the manhood 
of Christian experience : and it would be too absurd 
to be thought of, to suppose him to have been so 



IS IT BOBBERY, OB ENBICHMENT? 59 

far below them, and yet that they are not only 
so much wiser than their teacher, but have actually 
come to this wisdom through his teachings. 

The other supposition, that the two positions, 
though exactly the opposite of each other, are yet 
reconcilable with each other, and resolvable into one 
and the same, monstrous as it seems, has been 
adopted by very many and by very worthy people. 
How they can do this is very strange indeed, to one 
who looks at the matter squarely. How one can at 
the same time be carnal, sold under sin, and yet free 
from the law of sin ; doing that which he allows 
not, and unable to do what he would, but doing 
what he hates, and at the same time walking at 
liberty not after the flesh but after the spirit ; sub- 
ject to a law in his members warring against the 
law of his mind, 'bringing him into captivity to 
the law of sin and death, and yet made free from 
this law of sin and death by the law of the spirit 
of life in Christ Jesus ; in a word, how one can 
be sin's wretched bondman and Christ's happy 
freeman, at the same moment, does not appear to 
one unsophisticated in the matter. 

Indeed, this reconciliation is effected only by a 
supposition no less irreconcilable with itself, and 
even more monstrous in its absurdity. A supposi- 
tion that in every child of God there are two irrecon- 
cilable personalities, the old man and the new man, 



60 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

perpetually at war with each other ; yes, and a third 
person, as one who has passed through all this 
sophistry and happily come out of it has said, a 
third person, that is I, myself, looking on at the 
fight. The old man sinful, and the new man holy, 
hard at it in an undying battle, to cease only when 
death shall come in and end the fight and take the 
glory, and I, myself, the third man, looking on at 
the contest. is it not amazing, that out of such 
staff as this, Satan can build up a stronghold of 
contentment in sin ? 

There is but one thing that is more amazing 
than this, and that is that great and good men, 
with the open Bible before them, should arrive at 
the conclusion that holiness is heresy. To this 
the lying wonders in Egypt, and the mock mira- 
cles of an Elymas, and the counterfeit visions given 
by the father of fallacies to a Mohammed, are 
coarse and common-place. 

Neither is the thought admissible as a possibility, 
that the concurrent testimony of so great a cloud 
of witnesses, without a single jar of discord amongst 
them, or a particle of rebutting evidence against 
them, can be fallacious, and they themselves de- 
ceived as to the fact of the transition through 
which they have passed, and the liberty into which 
they have come. 

No, no ; we are driven by the power of a logic 



IS IT ROBBERY, OR ENRICHMENT? 61 

which is divine and unanswerable, before we come 
directly to the words of the Apostle, upon which 
this stronghold of fallacy has been reared as the 
refuge of sin, to the conclusion that the Apostle 
cannot be speaking of himself when he says, Jam 
carnal, sold under sin, and the like things in the 
seventh of Romans. 

And when we scan his words in their connec- 
tion, and ascertain the object aimed at in writing 
them, we cannot fail to see the perfect groundless- 
ness of the supposition that he is describing his 
own personal experimental standing at the time. 

What is the question he is 'answering in them? 
Is it this, il What, then, is my own present con- 
dition in this salvation of which I have been speak- 
ing ? " Not at all. It ought to be so, if his words 
are to be taken as concerning himself, but it is not. 
The question is this, u Is the law sin ? " A ques- 
tion totally different from the assumed one. Yet 
the answer to this question, " Is the law sin ? " is 
taken as if it were an answer to the question, " Am 
I living in sin?" And how has he reached this 
question as to whether the law is not bad, instead 
of good ? First, he has shown that the gospel, not 
the law, is the power of God unto salvation ; and 
next, that the law is, in effect, the power of God 
unto condemnation instead of salvation, because it 
shows up sin to the sinner and so brings him 



62 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

under the condemnation of his own conscience or 
mind, enlightened by the law ; in so much that the 
only way we can escape is to flee from the wrath 
of the law to the grace of Christ, and find salvation 
through His blood. Then comes the question as 
to continuance in sin. Freely justified by grace in 
Christ Jesus, are we to keep on sinning ? Ch. vi. 1. 
The answer to this is the most emphatic possible 
to human language ; and then the rationale of the 
process by which the dominion of sin is completely 
broken, is given as that of death to sin and life to 
God through faith in Jesus, the emancipator; 
and absolute separation from all leaning to the law 
for salvation — a separation as perfect and complete 
as the separation between the soul and body in death 
— is shown to be an indispensable thing in order 
to the perfect and complete union with Christ, by 
which deliverance from sin is gained. That is to 
say, there must be a shifting over of responsibility 
upon Jesus for emancipation from sinning, as com- 
plete as in justification there is for acquittal, if we 
would have deliverance. This done, he proceeds 
to answer the question certain to arise, <•' What 
about the law, then ? If it works condemnation, 
not justification, and bondage under sin, not free- 
dom from it, is it good ? Is it not bad ? ' : So he 
asks the question, " Is the law sin?" and fallacy 
has taken his vigorous, powerful answer to this 



IS IT ROBBERY, OR ENRICHMENT? 63 

question, and used it as if it were an answer to the 
question, " Am I, then, delivered from sin ? " A 
subtle, Satanic perversion, hard to be equalled in 
all the history of Biblical interpretation. 

He asks, " Is the law sin ? " and answers, " God 
forbid ! " and then goes on to show that without 
the law we had not known sin, and that even 
while under its power to condemn us, and to bind 
us, and to make us wretched legal bondmen, cry- 
ing out in despair, the very fact that it so affected 
us through our perfect approval of it mentally, 
while our moral bent was all on the other side, 
showed it to be, as it is, holy, just and good. 

This is the real drift, force and extent of the 
apostle's language. He does not so much as touch 
the question of his own personal, experimental 
standing or that of Christians generally, from the 
seventh verse to the end of the chapter, but simply 
answers the question, " Is the law sin? " There- 
fore, if we would see clearly what he does mean, 
we must write over this entire passage in capitals : 

IS THE LAW SIN? 

and read it all as an answer to this question, in- 
serting the words, " Under the law," wherever the 
sense requires it. Do this especially in the last 
verse. ' So, then, under the law, with the mind, 
I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, 



64 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

the law of sin.' And if still the fallacy stands, read 
the whole passage with the gospel antithesis to the 
law, which is fully justified by what precedes and 
follows this chapter. 

For example, read, a Under the law, I am car- 
nal, sold under sin ; but under the gospel I am 
spiritual, bought unto Christ by His precious blood. 
Under the law, that which I hate, that do I, but 
what I would, that do I not ; but under the gospel 
it is my delight to do thy will, O God. Under the 
law, I find a law in my members warring against 
the law in my mind and bringing me into captivity 
to the law of sin and death ; but under the gospel 
I find the law of the spirit of life setting 'me free 
from the war of my members against my mind, and 
bringing sweet peace within and perfect liberty to 
keep the commandments, and not find them griev- 
ous, but delightful. Under the law, to will is 
present with me, but how to perform that which is 
good, I find not ; but under the gospel God works 
in me of His good pleasure, both to will and to do 
joyously." 

So read and so accept this vexed but blessed 
Scripture, and the fabric of fallacy and stronghold 
of sin will fall before you as the walls of Jericho 
fell before Israel, and you will praise God forever 
for your glorious liberty. 



VI. 



THE PORTRAIT IN ROMANS SEVENTH. 

(^f|J)HE Apostle Paul has given us in Romans 
Seventh, from the seventh verse to the end 
of the chapter, the most powerful picture 
ever drawn, of a wretched bondman under the law. 

Is it a portrait of the Apostle himself at the 
time ? 

To be able to answer this question, we must 
view the picture from the Apostle's own stand- 
point. When Bierstadt's great painting, a Domes 
of the Yo Semite," was opened to visitors, I 
hastened to see it, and at first view, was sadly 
disappointed. The sublime features of the won- 
derful valley were beautifully portrayed as they 
were indelibly impressed on my memory, but 
somehow their proportions were not true to me. 

The fact was, my point of view was not that of 
the artist in taking his sketch, but far too low. The 
Yo Semite, I am persuaded, is the most wonderful 
valley in the world. Its walls are four thousand 
feet high, and, in places, nearly perpendicular. 

(65) 



66 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

These domes of granite, at considerable distances 
from each other, surmount the walls, and lift 
their round heads another thousand feet heaven- 
ward. Four rivers fall at intervals of miles from 
each other, over the walls, into the valley, and 
form in their confluence the Merced, which escapes 
through a narrow gorge at the lower end of the 
valley. The width of the valley, from wall to 
wall, is about the same as the height of its walls, 
and its floor is, in appearance, nearly level, com- 
prising forest and meadow-land, broken here and 
there by vast slides of granite, and threaded from 
head to foot, by the beautiful river in its sinuous, 
silvery course. 

The Yo Semite river falls into the valley, over 
the north wall, by two immense perpendicular 
leaps and a plunge. First it leaps 1,595 feet, then 
plunges at an angle of 45 deg. through boulders 
500 feet, and then takes its final leap of 600 feet, 
making in all 2,695 feet. This is a glance at the 
valley as remembered by me, and as I looked at 
the picture, the vast a Domes " on high, seemed 
too near and too large to me. And the forest 
trees below seemed dwarfed to mere shrubs, and 
the Merced river shrunk to a silver thread. The 
falls of the Yo Semite river above, also, were all 
changed. Of the three, only one was in view, and 
that out of all proportions in its width, as com- 



PORTRAIT IN ROMANS SEVENTH. 67 

pared with its height. After awhile I discovered 
my mistake. The artist had been perched on 
high, midway of the cliff, at the top of the lower 
falls, on a shelf of the wall, whilst I was away 
down below its foot. Well might the " Domes " 
above be swelled in their proportions, and brought 
near in their sublimity, and well might the river 
and the trees below, be dwarfed in his sight. And 
as soon as I had climbed in thought, to his high 
position, his picture was all right, all true to me. 
Is not this precisely the mistake made by many in 
their outlook upon the Apostle's picture of the 
wretched bondman of Romans Seventh? His 
sketch was taken from his own high position as a 
happy freeman, under the Gospel, looking back 
and looking down upon the struggling bondman 
under the law. Whilst they read his pencilings 
from their own low position under the law in 
bondage, and at times in despair. 

Let us try and reach the Apostle's own position, 
and then look at the picture and see. The ob- 
jective position for which he starts, in his Epistle 
to the Romans, is that of salvation complete by 
faith in Jesus as a complete Saviour, and he states 
this in the grand proposition at the outset, that 
" the Gospel is the power of God unto salva- 
tion to every one that believeth ; to the Jew 
first, and also to the Gentile" 



68 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

To reach, logically, the certainty of this grand 
reality, he mounts by successive steps, along a 
pathway of facts, solid and certain as the granite 
of the everlasting hills. 

The first great fact upon which he stands as his 
starting point, is that man — Jew and Gentile alike, 
is fallen, corrupted, enslaved in sin, serving the 
devil for the wages of death. 

The next fact in immediate connection with this, 
is, that the law does not justify those who are 
under it, but by its light, aggravates their con- 
demnation, and stimulates their opposition to God 5 
and increases the impending wrath to which they 
hasten. 

The next fact to which he comes, is, that the 
gospel freely justifies the sinner, even the chief of 
sinners, whether Jew or Gentile, through his faith 
in the Lord Jesus Christ, whom it presents to him 
as having borne his sins in His own body on the 
tree, and as being made of God unto him, perfect 
righteousness, even the righteousness of God, 
which, in Christ, is the free gift of God to every 
one that believeth, Jew and Gentile alike. Look- 
ing away back down the ages, he sees that Abra- 
ham exemplifies this, for, though he is the father 
of the Jews, he is justified, the same as a Gentile, 
by his faith four hundred years before the law is 
given, and while he himself is yet uncircum- 



PORTRAIT IN ROMANS SEVENTH. 69 

cisecl. Circumcised in heart before he is in the 
flesh. 

Then he comes to the fact, in the fifth chapter, 
that being freely justified by faith in Jesus, the 
sinner has peace with God, joy in the hope of 
glory, glorying even in tribulation, and having 
altogether a sublime and heavenly kind of life of 
it he re. on earth. 

The next fact reached by the Apostle, is that of 
the sinner's deliverance from sin through faith in 
Jesus. This is the fact of the sixth chapter. It 
opens with the question, whether the sinner saved 
by grace from condemnation, is to continue in sin, 
and the answer is positive and unquestionable. No 
negative could be stronger than the Apostle's 
u God forbid ; " no reason more conclusive than 
that of his question, u How shall we, who are 
dead to sin, live any longer therein ? " No war- 
rant for faith more complete than his " reckon 
yourselves, therefore, dead indeed unto sin, and 
alive unto God through Christ Jesus our Lord." 
No conclusion more certain than that, through 
this divine reckoning of faith, with its sublime 
foundation of union with Jesus, the sinner is set 
free from the slavery of sin, and brought into the 
liberty of a loving, joyous, spontaneous life, in 
complete reunion with God. 

The Apostle next arrives at the fact, (given in 



70 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

the 7th chapter, 1 — 6 v.,) that in order to this 
freedom from sin, and union with God, the law to 
which we are bound, as a woman to her husband, 
as long as he liveth, must die, must cease to be, 
as our dependence for life and growth, as abso- 
lutely as a dead husband ceases to be the depend- 
ence of her that was his wife. For, otherwise, 
we cannot accept our Lord Jesus Christ Tas our 
new 'husband and sole dependence in the new 
life. 

In each of these successive steps the Apostle 
finds a radical contrast between the law and the 
gospel. At every step he accepts, unhesitatingly 
and unequivocally, the logic of truth, condemning 
the law as a dependence in any degree for salva- 
tion, and accepting the gospel alone as the power 
of God, whether for pardon, peace, purity or life. 
He sees and accepts the fact, that the law brings 
condemnation, and the gospel alone brings justifi- 
cation ; the law aggravates rebellion, perversion, 
corruption; the gospel alone creates peace with 
God, and hope and joy in the Lord ; the law 
developes, but cannot break our bondage in the 
service of sin, and the gospel only can break the 
chains of sin, and set the soul at liberty to live in 
sweet union with God, and that in fact the law 
must die, as a husband must die, before his wife 
can be married to another man, in order that we 



PORTRAIT IK ROMANS SEVENTH. 71 

may be married to Christ, and so be brought into 
living union with God. 

This is a bright succession of facts for the gos- 
pel, but dark for the law. The gospel justifies, 
pacifies, purifies, gives life and glory. The law 
condemns, troubles, binds, kills — or appears to do 
so. Well may the Apostle, at this point, pause in 
his upward way to the domes of full salvation, 
and ask, What of the law ? Can it be good ? Must 
it not be evil ? 

This, then, is exactly the stand-point from which 
the Apostle sketches the remarkable man of Ro- 
mans Seventh. And this man as sketched, is 
simply a grand, graphic, living illustration of the 
Apostle's emphatic negative, " God forbid," to his 
own question, " Is the law sin ? " 

It is the picture of a wretched bondman under 
the law, standing forth to defend and justify the 
law. It is as if, in a criminal court, a man who 
had broken the law, and been tried, condemned 
and bound over under the law he had broken, 
should, on hearing the goodness of the law called 
in question, rise, stand forth, and say to the court 
and the world, " The law is all right. I alone am 
to blame. The law shows me my guilt, as I 
should not have seen it, but my crimes are my 
own, and the law is not to blame for them. It is 
my own propensity to crime that has led me to do 



72 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

what I have done in spite of the law. The fact 
is, I knew well enough in the light of the law 
itself, that I w^as breaking it, and often and often 
resolved not to do it, but my propensity was too 
strong for me, and too strong for the law, and 
carried me in spite of myself, and in spite of the 
law, and now here I am condemned, and in bonds 
and in despair, but the law is not to blame for it. 
My own wicked propensities which carried me 
away into crime, against my own mind, and against 
the light of the law, are the cause of all, and I 
stand here in my bonds, a condemned criminal 
under the law, to justify and commend the law as 
good and right." 

In this view of the picture we have the grandest 
justification of the law ever given except alone 
that of the voluntary death of our Saviour under 
the law, to redeem those who are under it. 

And in this view of it, we see at a glance the 
mistake of those who have supposed it to be the 
Apostle's portraiture of himself at the time it was 
drawn, and as such, a true delineatiou of Christian 
experience under the gospel. 

It is, indeed, the delineation of the experience 
of a Christian, but it is that of a Christian under 
the lav/, not under the gospel, and that not for the 
purpose of showing what true Christian experience 
is, but of honoring the law, by showing how the 



PORTRAIT IN ROMANS SEVENTH, 73 

Christian, even in his false position under the law, 
sees and knows it to be holy, just and good. 

It may have been from the stores of memory 
that the Apostle drew this wonderful sketch. 
Most men, if not all, who reach the domes above, 
come sometime in their course, under the law 
below. Most men, if not all, after they come out 
of Egypt, through the Eed Sea, come under 
Sinai, on their way to the land, before they come 
by the second baptism fully into it. Most men, if 
not all, after they have been baptized with the 
baptism of change of mind, sit under the Sermon 
on the Mount, and the Sermon on the Judgment, 
in their progress toward the baptism of the Holy 
Ghost and of fire, by which they come into abiding 
fullness of union and life with our Lord Jesus 
Christ ; and it would be strange indeed, if the 
Apostle had not, somewhere between his arrest on 
the Damascus road, and the writing of this Epistle 
to the Romans, tried conclusions with the law as 
his deliverer from the power of sin. Indeed, I 
do not see how else he could ever have been qual- 
ified to show up the power of the law as an en- 
lightener on the one hand, and its powerlessness 
on the other hand as a deliverer from sin, as 
he has done in this sketch, or how he ever 
could have so delineated the wretched bondman 
under the law, as he did, if he had not been there 
himself. 



74 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

Especially, I cannot conceive how he could 
have given the point of transition from under the 
law, out, under the gospel, at the point of despair, 
at the moment of crying out, " O wretched man 
that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of 
this death," so that, in the next moment, he could 
utter the cry of victory, " I thank God, through 
Jesus Christ our Lord," if he had not himself at 
some time, made the passage in his own experience. 
Yet I cannot see, in this delineation, the Apostle's 
own experience at the time, for he was at that 
time, as is evident from the equally graphic, and 
far more delightful delineation in the eighth chap- 
ter, not the wretched bondman under the law, bu$ 
a happy freeman under the gospel. 

Neither can I see in it the representation of the 
Christian experience under the gospel, for it is not 
so ; it is simply the experience of a Christian in a 
false position, not under the gospel, but under the 
law, in his futile efforts for emancipation from the 
slavery of sin. 

If the Apostle himself, was in the Seventh 
Chapter at the time he wrote it, he was also in the 
Eighth, and so was in a greatly advanced position 
at the same time, and so must have been greatly 
ahead of himself. 

And more than this, as he was the first person 
singular present in the Seventh, and the first per- 



PORTRAIT IN ROMANS SEVJSNTE. 75 

son plural present in the Eighth Chapter, implying 
that there were others with him in the Eighth ; 
yes, all who had passed from under the law, and 
found full salvation in Christ, therefore, if the 
portrait in the Seventh was his own at the time, 
many others, and of these not a few who had been 
brought there by his own blessed teachings, were 
ahead of him. Not only was he ahead of himself, 
but also his own children in the faith were ahead 
of him — a thing not easy to believe. In fact the 
reading of this Seventh of Romans, from the 
Apostle's own point of view, as an illustration of 
the true character of the law, and not at all as an 
example of true Christian experience, clears the 
matter of all difficulty, and causes no break in the 
steps of his own grand logic, mounting up to the 
demonstration of his own proposition. While on 
the other hand, the reading of it from a legal 
stand-point, as a sketch of his experience at the 
time, involves one in endless difficulty and mon- 
strous absurdity. 




VII. 

TRUST, TRUST, TRUST, OVER ALL MY 

GATES. 




)HE l Season ' in London was nearly over. A 
new social religious world had opened to us 
during the few weeks since our arrival. 
One day a friend remarked to me that within one 
month from that day a million of the people then 
in London would be away. 

The fact startled me. What ! a million ? so 
many in so short a time ? But the certainty indi- 
cated by this fact, that my new vision of social 
Christian life was so quickly to pass away for the 
time, was more startling still. Nightly, almost, 
we had been invited to religious parties, and 
always went when not otherwise necessarily en- 
gaged. The first we attended, suggested the solu- 
tion of the difficult problem of Christian amuse- 
ments, shall I say ? rather of the Christian social 
want, as to how it may be met, and each succeed- 
ing one served to confirm the impression made by 
the first. 

(76) 



« trust; over all my gates. n 

These parties serve perfectly, in the families of 
those who give them, and of those who attend 
them, all the purposes of the worldly parties in 
worldly society, and are far more enjoyable, and 
not at all hurtful. Old and young together enter 
into them, with a zest that presents a strong and 
happy contrast with the insipidity of parties where 
cards, dancing and the usual time-killing devices 
are the reliance for enjoyment. 

We had little time, however, for regrets. A 
day or two later, one who had become endeared 
to us by the sweetest of ties, Christian love, put 
this question to me, " Would you like a little time 
in the country ? ' : A new vision sprang up before 
me, a vision of Christian life and work on one of 
the great estates of England ; and I answered, 
"Yes, indeed; nothing could please me better." 
Very soon the post brought us a kind note from 
Lady , inviting us, in the name of her hus- 
band, Sir T , and herself, to visit them, and 

suggesting the day and the train. We had never 

seen them. Lady , who had interested herself 

in the matter, and who herself with her daughter, 

was to join us at Park, said of Lady — , 

who had invited us, " Ah, when you see her you 
will see a royal Christian." We found it true. 
We found in her one woman whose domain is 
beautifully pervaded with all that is lovely and of 



78 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

good report, and from which every idol seems to 
have been gathered out and buried, as the house- 
hold of Israel gathered out and buried under the 
oak at Shechem, all their idols, before going up to 
Bethel. 

Several months after our visit there, Lady , 

with her husband. Sir T , came up to London 

for the Mildmay Conferences, and when they were 
about to return I called to say, Good-by. They 
were at lunch, and made me sit down with them. 
Conversation turned, as it had done many, many 
times before, upon the presence of Christ, and our 
privilege to trust in Him for everything. When 

we arose, and I gave Sir T my hand- for the 

parting salutation, he held it in his own for a 
moment without speaking, and then, as if solilo- 
quizing, said, a Yes, yes, I must go home and 
write < Trust, trust, trust, 5 over all my gates." 

My heart was deeply moved, a choking sensa- 
tion prevented any other response than a warm 
pressure of the hand, until I was able to utter an 
ejaculation of praise to God. His gates are not 
few. His estate covers many broad English miles, 
and* embraces a number of parishes with their 
churches, and villages with their populations, be- 
sides very many farms with their occupants and 
farm laborers. He had, long before, practically 
inscribed over all his gates, the stewardship prin- 



'TRUSTS OVER ALL MY GATES. 79 

ciple, " From the Lord, and, For the Lord/' but 
with it had come over him a deep sense of respon- 
sibility, and the weight of immense care, lest he 
should fail or come short in anything, together 
with condemnation when Jie did not come up to 
his standard. But now, evidently, while we had 
been speaking together, of Jesus as present with 
us, the Lord had Himself been showing His 
servant anew his glad and glorious privilege of 
casting the burden of all this care on Him, and 
going home to the oversight of all with a light 
heart, and with songs and perpetual joy on his 
tongue. 

Years before this, Lady , in her own do- 
main, had virtually inscribed the talismanic word 
' Trust/ over all the doors of their princely old 
Norman Hall, and filled every room in it from 
kitchen to drawing room and from cellar to attic, 
with its sunshine all the day long and all days of 
the week. So we found it, and I trust it was no 
worse when we left it. 

Some idea of the use these lovely Christian 
people made of their house and their opportunities 
may be gained by the following facts. Every 
morning whilst we were there, the household, 
servants, family and guests, thirty-five or forty in 
number, were assembled in the central hall for 
instruction and worship, a custom kept up the 



80 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

year round. Every opportunity was seized for 
Bible readings under the trees in their beautiful 
grounds or in the house. Almost every day some 
meeting was held in one or other of the villages, 
in school-houses or open air. Visits were made 
amongst the farmers and farm laborers from time 
to time, especially to those who were in peculiar 
need of guidance to the precious Saviour. 

One of the first things after our arrival done by 

Lady , was the writing of a hundred notes, 

more or less, to clergy and gentry, inviting them 
from many miles around the Hall to meet us on 
Thursday afternoon of that week. In response, 
the great drawing rooms of the Hall were filled 
and an adjoining room opened to accommodate 

guests. At the close of the address, Sir T 

invited them to come again the Tuesday following, 
and again their spacious rooms were filled. Clergy- 
men and others whom they desired especially to 
have benefitted, were invited to remain after these 
drawing-room addresses to dinner. Others were 
specially invited to dinner on other days, that 
opportunity might be gained for personal conver- 
sation. Then, when our time had come for going 
north, in response to another similar invitation, 
appointments were made for us in the nearest 
city on our way for the afternoons and evenings 
of two days which we had at command in draw- 



• TRUST,' OVER ALL MY GATES. 81 

ing-rooms and halls, to fill up every available 
moment. 

In all this there was no strain, no misgivings, 
no trouble borrowed from the morrow, no anxiety, 
no sternness, no bustle, as if it were extraordinary, 
no vain parade or boasting, no self whipping, as if 
it were an onerous duty, but all went quietly, 
peacefully, cheerily on, as if it were a matter of 
course and a matter of delight. 

There are those who have houses in which God 
and His Word might be honored, who would be 
shocked if even bv inadvertence the Lord should 
not be acknowledged daily at the altar, and contin- 
ually at the table as a duty ; who yet plead for 
dancing and cards and other worldly expedients 
for killing time, saying, "Our children must have 
some enjoyment, you know." Duty — enjoyment. 
Duty to God and for God and from God. Enjoy- 
ment in the world and in worldly amusements. Ah, 
where are their hearts — with God or in the world ? 
A poor compliment to God they pay surely and a 
high compliment to the world ! Would that they 
could look in a few evenings upon Christian parties 
such as we attended, and take part in them. 
Surely if they could, the poor dancing and card 
parties they give would appear so insipid that they 
could never repeat them. Or, that they could 
make just one such visit as was permitted us at the 



82 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

old Norman Hall and take a few cheery lessons in 
the school of real happiness. 

Let it be distinctly understood, however, that 
neither in old Norman halls or in the palaces of 
princes, or in cottages of the poor, or in new 
millionaire mansions, or anywhere on earth, is true 
happiness to be found by seeking one's own grati- 
fication. These religious parties are not meetings, 
but real parties, — yet they do not mean mere re- 
ligious pastime, much less religious dissipation, — 
but culture in the Word of God, and the hallowing 
*of social life. They mean work. They mean sal- 
vation. Those who give them are in earnest. 
They have weighed well the beautiful saying, c he 
that winneth souls is wise, and they that turn many 
to righteousnes shall shine as the stars forever and 

ever.' The invitation to Park, was neither 

given or accepted as a compliment on the one side, 
or as an opportunity to see new phases of old world 
life on the other. Nor yet as the novelty of new 
faces and new voices from a new country, on their 
side, and of old things honorable, on our side, 
but mainly, on both sides, it meant earnest work 
to elevate the standard of experimental religion in 
the church of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the sal- 
vation of the lost. 

There is a charming power, and a mighty one 
for God and for good, in our kitchens and dining 



' TRUST,' OVEB ALL MY GATES. 83 

rooms, sitting and drawing rooms, which we have 
not yet so well considered. The Apostle Peter's 
injunction, " use hospitality one to another without 
grudging, as good stewards of the manifold 
grace of God,' 9 has in it a hint for the wise, of 
untold importance. There is a power of com- 
municating the grace of God at the dining table 
and in the social party, which no minister has or 
can have in the church, or leader in the prayer 
meeting. Of all things, one amongst the most 
to be desired is the conversion of social life 
and influence to God from its perversion to the 
world. 






VIII. 

OURSELVES TO THE LORD, 
OUR CHILDREN TO THE WORLD. 

KfNE of the events during our stay at the Old 
Norman Hall, was a social reunion at the 
house of a well-known banker a few miles 
away. The occasion was that of the annual meet- 
ing of the County Bible Society in a barn. Half 
way from the house to the barn, in an open undu- 
lating field, studded here and there with clumps of 
trees and shrubbery, stands a beautiful parish 
church. Yet we passed by the church and 
assembled in the barn. The Bishop of the diocese 
was with us and took a warm interest in the mat- 
ter. There was novelty in the very rudeness of 
the place and we enjoyed it vastly. There was no 
room in the inn for the Living Word, the Prince of 
Glory, when He came into the world, and therefore 
He was born in a stable and cradled in a manger. 

The good Bishop, though no allusion was made 
to it, no doubt would gladly, if he could, have 
expunged from the laws the restriction which 

(84) 



OURSELVES TO THE LORD. 85 

prevented the lovers of the written Word from 
having room for their union anniversary in the 
church and sent them to the barn , but though he 
could not do that, he did what he could, and his 
loving words were eagerly listened to by all. At 
the house the large company sat down to a splen- 
did repast, and enjoyed it too, for you know the 
best of people do eat, and do enjoy good things. 

Another event was that of a social religious 
reunion at the house of a family of the country 
gentry, a few miles in another direction from the 
Hall, in behalf of the London Arabs, a hundred 
and fifty miles away, tfere the repast was nicely 
spread in a large carriage-house. A hundred and 
fifty people sat down at the tables to a good plain 
supper, at no great cost to the kind host, and 
afterwards listened to a very touching statement of 
facts given in the same place by Miss Macpherson, 
the principal of the work. 

Another was an afternoon in the beautiful 
grounds of the Rectory of one of the parish 
churches on the estate, where, after addresses, 
singing and prayer, the occasion was closed by tea 
served in the Rectory. 

At each and all of these places hospitality 
served like the beautiful frame of a picture, to 
hold up to the eye of the world the more precious 
things of -the kingdom of God. And in each the 



8Q GLADNESS IN JESUS., 

great social want was met, in a measure, by the 
freedom of personal contact and interchange before 
and after the repast, and by the genial power of 
the table. 

There is a power in free personal contact which 
is not obtained by sitting in silent rows, each 
family fenced off by itself in a church. And there 
is a power in a dinner or supper which there is 
not in a sermon. It opens the mouth certainly 
and warms a man up. And there is an affinity 
between Christian hearts which makes them run 
together like globules of quicksilver, if you give 
them perfect liberty, especially around a table 
spread in the name of the Lord, by the generosity 
of any good steward of the manifold grace of God. 
English Christians more than ever have learned 
and applied the secret of this power. What we 
saw of it in one place and another was very cheering 
and instructive. 

The name of Reginald Radcliffe, the Liverpool 
barrister, was often and affectionately mentioned 
by our noble host and hostess. He had paid them 
a visit by invitation, and they had surrounded him 
with the attractions of their generous hospitality 
and high position, and so made the most of his 
presence and voice for the glory of Christ and the 
benefit of all around them. 

These things, however, are only the' occasional 



OURSELVES TO THE LORD. 87 

accessories. Their absence causes no backset. The 
current of social religious life at the Hall, and in 
its wide circle, rolls on all the year round. At 
one period it assumed the form of stated social 
Bible parties, in triangular rotation, first at the 
Hall, then at the Rectory, and then at the Mansion 
where the Little Arabs' teneflt was given. At 
other periods it took on other forms. But, what- 
ever the form, the onflow remains unchecked and 
unchilled. 

These cursory hints from the rising custom 
abroad, suggest the secret of a great unused power 
for Christ lying dormant in the hands of Christians 
at home. And it lies very near to them, too, in 
their very houses ; they have not far to go for it. 
Half the cost of time and money taken to keep 
abreast with the gay world in fashionable parties, 
would serve the purpose. 

Yet, if done at all, it must be done heartily as 
unto the Lord. Nothing will make it a success 
but a thorough consecration of house and family to 
the Lord, with a willingness to breast the tide of 
remarks that may be made, and a faith that will 
stand the test, and keep the even tenor of the race, 
looking steadily to Jesus. Whether we have such 
Christians with such hearts, and with houses to 
devote in this way, the Lord Himself only knows. 
Have we ? We shall see. Certainly we must 



88 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

have, if wisdom is to be justified of her chil- 
dren. 

But what of the young ? 

These religious parties, and this custom of 
Christianizing social life so completely, will it do 
for our children ? Must they not have a little 
enjoyment ? 

These questions are asked by many a one who 
would be shocked by any neglect of duty what- 
ever. 

Ah, there it is again ! Duty to God as a task- 
master, but the world for enjoyment. What ! Is 
a pack of cards more enjoyable than the glad 
news ? Is a dance to the notes of some senseless 
combination of music, more delightful than the 
play of the Spirit of Truth upon the strings of the 
heart with heavenly sweetness ? Is the silly, 
small talk of beaux and beWes more gratifying 
than the unfolding of the great and glorious reali- 
ties of the kingdom of God ? What must any 
one conclude about himself, who can say Yes, to 
these questions ? 

But then, if we do not provide these things at 
home, when they are innocent, will not our chil- 
dren seek them abroad to their destruction ? 

There it is again. What, innocent at home 
and destructive abroad ? 

Why not ? May not a thing be innocent in 



OURSELVES TO THE LORD. 89 

itself, and therefore innocent at home, and asso- 
ciated with things destructive abroad, and there- 
fore destructive to those who go abroad for it? 

There again. Can it be safe to provide at 
home for the cultivation of tastes which will be sure 
in the end to seek gratification abroad amongst 
ruinous accessories ? 

Oh, is there not a better way ? Surely there is. 
Alas, are there not too many who desire to give 
themselves to God and their children to the world ? 
Ambition for our children, which seeks 'for them 
wealth and position, and fears that too much devo- 
tion to God would mar their prospects, is a fearful 
thing. Is it not that which sacrifices them to the 
world as the Israelites offered their children to 
Moloch ? May we not here find the early kindling 
spark struck out in many a heart by parental hands 
which in the end becomes the consuming fire of 
everlasting burnings ? 

Two facts, however, should set all question 
about this matter for our children at rest. The 
one is, that the children of those who find not 
duty alone but delight in Christ, do in fact follow 
sweetly with their parents, and do find the social 
want completely met. The other fact is stronger. 
Many young men and women, whose parents 
oppose them, seek these circles of Christian de- 
light and separate themselves from the world in 



'90 . GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

which their parents move, even at the risk of 
disinheritance. 

The simple truth is, that there are no pleasures 
on earth like the pleasures of pure religion when 
its fullness of blessing is found. And there are 
no circles so attractive as those where Christ is 
most honored and the world most despised, nor 
any companionships so pure and so sweet as those 
in which the love of the Lord is the strength of 
the bond. 





IX. 

THE STORY OF THE RECTOR. 

"I DID PREACH DOCTRINE, I DO PREACH CHRIST." 

" Then went Philip down to the city of Samaria, and preached 
Christ unto them."— Acts viii. 5. 

HE Rector of church, , England, 

is one of the most devoted servants of the 
Lord. One day he was presiding at a Union 
Conference for higher Christian life in London, and 
was constrained to place another in the chair 
in his stead, in order to go to other work for which 
he was engaged. By way of commending his suc- 
cessor, he said, " This dear brother has been 

making us a visit down in . Like Philip the 

Evangelist, when he went down to Samaria, he 
has been preaching Christ unto us. Before his visit 
amongst us, I did preach doctrine, but since that I 
do preach Christ." 

The story of the Rector's religious progress, as 
I have it in snatches, is really a very remarkable 
one in itself, and an excellent enforcement of the 
wisdom of his final position as a preacher. 



92 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

Educated for the Church in one of Old Eng- 
land's great Universities, he took orders in due 
course, and found a place under one of the bish- 
ops. He was zealous for the church, and punctili- 
ous in the observance and enforcement of all its 
rites, and in this found his righteousness. This 
alone, however, might have failed to satisfy him. 
He might, notwithstanding all, have felt the ab- 
sence of the divine element, the divine agency, 
the divine power in and through all, if he had not 
been a firm believer in the doctrine of baptismal 
regeneration. Believing, as he did, that a divine 
seed is implanted in connection with the rite of 
baptism, by the Holy Spirit, in the work of regen- 
eration, of which the rite is the symbol, he was 
satisfied to observe and to administer all other rites 
of the church as God's own appointed means of 
building up, strengthening, establishing and devel- 
oping the mystical Christian life already imparted 
in baptismal regeneration. Doctrine was his cor- 
ner-stone, doctrine instead of Christ, and the 
corner-stone doctrine upon which his whole doc- 
trinal superstructure was erected, was that of bap- 
tismal regeneration. As the corner-stone was the 
doctrine of a rite, so the superstructure was one of 
the doctrines of ritualism. 

Happily for him, the Lord, who by His voice, is 
to shake not the earth only, but the heavens also, 



THE STORY OF THE RECTOR. 93 

that all may pass away except that which is true, 
and therefore eternal, shook his foundation, and 
caused the superstructure to fall. 

One of his own servants was prostrated by dis- 
ease, and about to die. As the Rector came to his 
bedside to receive the last words of his dying ser- 
vant, and administer to him the last rites — saving, 
as he believed them to be — of his sacred office, he 
was suddenly confounded by the words, which, in 
whispering tones, fell on his ear. " Please, Sir, 
won't you send for the Wesleyan minister to come 
and see me ? " 

For a moment the Rector sat in silence, and 
then said — u Am I not your minister ? " 

u Yes, Sir — you are, Sir — but, Sir — I am dying, 
and I want to know the way to heaven. You, Sir, 
do not know the way for yourself, and I am sure 
you cannot show it to me." 

The Rector was struck as dumb before his own 
servant, by these words, as Zacharias had been 
before the Lord by the words of Gabriel, and, like 
Zacharias, could only go out and await the result. 
The Wesleyan was sent for. The Rector was 
careful to be present at the interview. The ser- 
vant was right. Like Philip, the Wesleyan 
preached Christ, and the dying man believed and 
passed away, in the triumphant assurance that he 
should be this day with Christ in paradise. 



94 GLADNESS IN JESUS.' 

This was the voice of God, who, by His Son, 
is speaking to us in these last days ; it utterly 
shook, and caused to pass away, the foundation 
upon which the Rector's confidence had been 
placed, and suddenly burned up the hay, wood 
and stubble of his ritual superstructure built upon 
it. He was humbled in the dust. His proud 
heart was broken. Like his own servant, he took 
his place at the feet of the before despised Wes- 
leyan, listened to the preaching of Christ by his 
lips, believed and was saved. 

A new career opened before him. He entered 
upon it with all the ardor of a generous nature, 
stimulated by the energies of a new life. Many 
were broughtto believe in the Lord and be saved. 
But it was not long before he became sensible of 
the need of a still deeper work of grace, if he 
would be able to overcome his own sinful propen- 
sities, and present Christ, the overcomer, to his 
people. This necessity was still further enforced 
by the consciousness of lack of power as a preacher 
of the gospel. At times, indeed, he was borne up 
as on eagle's wings, in his work, and felt himself 
sustained fully, and filled to overflowing, like a 
spring welling up unto everlasting life, and pouring 
forth streams of living water ; then, again, he felt 
himself to be like the dry well, with a dry pump 
from which no living water would come, pump he 
never so hard. 



THF STORY OF THE BECTOR. 95 

Still farther this matter came home upon him, 
by the Wesleyan's testimony that all his needs in 
these respects and every other might be supplied 
by our Lord Jesus Christ experimentally received. 
Therefore once asrain he humbled himself in the 
lowly seat of a learner at the feet of the Lord in 
the person of His humble servant, and accepted 
Christ as his emancipator from all sin, his pride, 
his unbelief, his impatience, his prejudice, himself, 
and as He, by whom Satan and the world should 
be overcome, his soul filled with faith and the 
Holy Ghost. 

And he was filled unutterably full. Peace, the 
peace of God passing all understanding, was given 
him by the Lord Jesus. Joy in the Holy Ghost, 
joy unspeakable and full of glory sprang up in 
his heart, and the joy of the Lord became his 
strength. Light shone round about him above the 
brightness of the sun, the light of Christ. The 
way of sanctification opened before him as an 
illuminated pathway, a ladder of light, its foot on 
earth, irs top in heaven, the way of faith in Christ 
the way. And so a new ministerial as well as 
Christian career opened up before him full of hope 
and full of promise. He was not slow to enter 
upon it nor slack in pursuing it, and the Lord 
wonderfully prospered him in it. From London 
to Dublin, from North to South and from East to 



96 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

West, as he became known he was sent for, not 
because of any great oratorical power or philoso- 
phical or theological strength, but because he 
walked and talked and lived and preached by 
faith. The amount of good done by him will be 
unfolded not in time, that cannot be, but in eter- 
nity. More than a hundred of his fellow clergy- 
men in the Church were led to escape from their 
false foundation of baptismal regeneration, and to 
find the actual regeneration of the Spirit through 
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And if so many 
of the clergy, O how many of the people must 
have been led to the Saviour through those years 
of his labors more abundant, and how vast the 
widening circle around these hundred ministers 
and hundreds of people ! 

One thing, however, he afterwards came to 
recognize as a limiting influence both to the power 
of his own personal progress and the fruitfulness 
of his ministry for others. Seeing the fallacy and 
fatality of the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, 
he fell into the way of preaching the opposite 
doctrine of real regeneration by the Spirit through 
faith in Jesus, instead of preaching Christ person- 
ally as the Saviour, and regeneration by the Spirit 
as the result of receiving Christ by fakh. Or, in 
other words, he preached doctrine first, and so 
found that even after the doctrine had been 



THE STORY OF THE RECTOR. 97 

accepted the regeneration had not. been received, 
and he had then the whole work to do over again 
by preaching Christ, and getting his hearers to 
receive Him before they could be regenerate^!. 
The very same thing happened also in the matter 
of deliverance from sin. Seeing the fallacy and 
bondage-engendering power, of the doctrine of 
sanctification by the diligent use of the means of 
grace, that is in truth by works, and the truth and 
efficiency of sanctification by the Holy Spirit 
through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, he preached 
the doctrine of sanctification by faith, in contradis- 
tinction to the doctrine of sanctification by works. 

The result of this was that, fortified as he was 
in the bulwarks of divine revelation, many were 
convinced and won to the doctrine, as a doctrine, 
but this did not bring them to Christ as their sanc- 
tification, and so they might remain for months or 
years, converts to the doctrine, but not recipients 
of the grace of full experimental union with Jesus, 
by which alone they could have found Him made 
unto them sanctification, as well as wisdom, 
righteousness, and redemption. 

Wherefore, here again he had double work to 
do, or half work only at best accomplished. At 
last, it would seem from his expression at the Con- 
ference, he had come to see the better way, the 
short cut, the Apostolic method of preaching, not 



98 GLADNESS IN JESUS, 

doctrine, but Christ as the living Saviour, made of 
God unto us by the Holy Spirit, wisdom, right- 
eousness, sanctification, and redemption through 
faith in His name. 

A doctrine preached, results, at best, in its 
immediate power, only in a doctrine received. 
And that is a thing in the head, which may or may 
not be followed up to an experimental proof of its 
truth, if it be a doctrine concerning Christ by the 
reception of Christ in the heart. Christ preached, 
results directly, if accepted, in the reception of 
Christ in the heart. Be it for regeneration, be it 
for justification, be it for sanctification, the experi- 
ence does not come from the acceptance of the 
theory about it — that is the doctrine of it — but 
from the acceptance of Christ, who alone can either 
justify or deliver the soul from sin by the power of 
the Holy Ghost. 

Tell me, is not this one of the reasons why our 
Protestant Reformation has made no more progress 
and had no greater power ? Have we not, in fact, 
stuck in the doctrines concerning Christ, and made 
them a dogmatic stopping place, instead of com- 
ing directly to Christ, the living Saviour, who 
alone is the way, the truth, and the life ? And is 
not this the secret of little fruitage under the most 
orthodox teaching, that the taught are inducted 



'&> 



into doctrines, and not into Christ ? 



THE STORY OF THE HECTOR. 99 

And is not this one, at least, of the causes of the 
bondage and barrenness, the hungerings and the 
humblings of the day in the church of Christ, that 
they are fed upon dogma and not upon bread, upon 
the husks which inclose the corn, instead of the 
golden bread from the kernel itself? Is there, in 
fact, in doctrine — that is in dogma — any saving 
power whatever ? Is it dogmas about Christ, or 
the teaching and preaching of Christ, which we 
find set forth in the Acts and Epistles ? 

Would not a return to the Apostolic method of 
preaching Christ directly, in His living,, loving 
presence and power, as complete and art meeting any 
and every want of the soul, result, as it did of old, 
in great joy in every city where He should be 
preached and in every soul by whom He should 
be received? Nor is this a question alone for 
preachers, technically so called, but for all teachers 
— that is, for all Christians. 

Moreover, is not the secret of the power infolded 
in this, the power by which all Christians; are to 
be made teachers — preachers of tho gospel ? Will 
the church ever be baptized into the spirit and 
power of the great commission, until baptized into 
Christ by the Holy Spirit as were the disciples on 
the day of Pentecost ? 



X 



THE MANTLE OF POWER, 

OK 

WOEK IN FULL TRUST. 

Yes, let it fall on me now, 
And richly my spirit endow; 
Clothe me, O God, from above, 
For Thy precious service of love. 




" Thou hast asked a hard thing."— 2 Kings ii. 10. 
" But ye shall receive power."— Acts i. 8. 

HARD thing ! Yes ; yet the easiest thing in 
the world. Richard Baxter said to his 
people, " I have set you an easy lesson, hard 
to learn." Trust work is the easiest work ever 
done. Love's labor is the sweetest labor mortals 
or immortals perform. Yet the trusting, loving 
position seems the last to be gained, and the mantle 
of power by which it is attained seems the hardest 
to take up. 

Trust work is often taken up and successfully 
carried on by those who are not in full trust. Trust 
for work and trust in work are quite possible to 
those who are in trust for the forgiveness of their 
sins, but not for salvation from sin ; and, in fact, 

(100) 



TEE MANTLE OF POWER. 101 

this is the actual position of many who enter into 
trust work for Christ. The consequence of this is 
that their work goes well, for they have taken up 
the mantle of power for work. A swelling Jordan 
may lie across their path, but as Elisha took up 
the fallen mantle of the translated Elijah, they 
have taken up the promise of the ascended Saviour, 
and with it they smite the waters of difficulty, and 
instantly they part hither and thither, leaving a 
plain, safe way through them. Death and barren- 
ness may lie all around them, impossible of remedy 
to human skill or to common faith; yet at the 
word of the Lord, girt about with His mantle of 
power, they go forth to the spring of the waters 
and cast in them the salt, and the waters are healed 
and the land restored to fertility and beauty. 

Yet at the same time, these very ones, so mighty 
in their faith for work, have a hard time of it in 
their contests with sin in their own hearts, and are, 
alas ! too often conquered instead of victorious, 
because they have not learned the hard-easy lesson 
of trust for the victory. 

In one of the cities of England r a Christian wo- 
man who had no children of her own, and in whom 
the mother instinct was deep and full, was touched 
with the tenderest pity for the fatherless children 
of husbandless mothers, and through them for the 
husbandless mothers themselves, whom all the 

H 



102 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

world despise — so helpless and hopeless in their 
degradation ! Homes for these poor mothers and 
children. O what a boon to them it would be ! 
Homes instead of the work-house. Yes, and true 
Christian homes, where their ignorance would not 
be their snare, making them an easy prey again to 
lust, but would excite sympathy and induce effect- 
ual effort for their instruction and salvation. Ah ! 
how perfectly these would meet the case ! But 
could it be done ? Could Christian homes be pro- 
vided for them ? And could they be induced to 
accept them ? 

If she tried begging for money to build such 
homes, she soon gave it up. Those to whom in 
her blindness she would apply, would be too blind 
to see anything but absurdity and folly in her idea. 
She was driven to take up the mantle of trust, and 
cast the whole matter upon the Lord. Help came 
very soon in unlooked-for ways. Home after 
home arose until a whole row, almost a village of 
them, nestled sweetly in a sheltered place just out- 
side of the whirl of the city. All paid for ; all 
sustained ; all filled ; all prospered : all happy ! 
What more could her heart wish ? O, a great 
deal more ! The homes were prospered, but the 
spring of the waters in her own soul wajs still 
poisoned by sin. Fret, and worry, and pride, and 
vanity would crop out in their native ugliness just. 



THE MANTLE OF POWER. 103 

when she least expected and most deprecated their 
presence. Impatience with her helpers when they 
were stupid or self-willed, or set up against her 
plans, which, alas ! she found too often to be the 
case, would arise and take her off her balance. 
These frictions, too, would come in her own do- 
mestic life as well as in her Christian work ; and 
the burden of this heart-trouble at last became 
intolerable. Yet she knew not its relief. She 
knew it must be from Christ, and sought it with 
great diligence and earnestness, but did not trust it 
for cure as she had trusted her work for supply, 
and so failed of it in spite of all her efforts and 
prayers. 

At last, one day she heard one from afar speak 
of the Lord's Prayer, especially of the words, 
" Thine is the kingdom," — within, in the soul, its 
throne in the heart — "<ind the power " Ah, that 
conjunction ; and but for that her despair might 
have remained the same or grown greater than 
ever; but that conjunction joined the kingdom and 
the power to set it up in the soul together, and 
joined both to the Lord. Thine is the kingdom, 
and the power to set it up and maintain it forever. 
This she saw, and at once she ceased her struggles 
and cries and rested in the promise. Now she 
saw that the mantle of power was .an inside gar- 
ment as well as an outside one. That it was in- 



104 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

tended to wrap about one's own soul in the sweet 
folds of peace, and love, and light, and joy, and 
patience, and charity, as well as to serve for smit- 
ing the waters of difficulty in one's path, and for 
covering his weakness with the strength of God ; 
for healing the poisoned waters at their fountain, 
which else would flow forth in ceaseless streams of 
death and barrenness to others. 

Trust work is of many kinds. It is not all in 
one general vein of charity work. The Lord be 
praised that orphans and consumptives, and the 
fallen, and fatherless children with their husband- 
less mothers, and other classes of homeless and 
helpless ones, are beginning to be provided, upon 
the trust principle, with homes and help in a truly 
Christianly way as brothers and sisters, the children 
of our Father, and not as paupers despised. But 
was not Elijah's and Elisha's a trust work of 
divine reform ? Was not Peter's, and Paul's, and 
John's, a trust work in the spread of the gospel ? 

The work of the evangelist, lay or clerical, male 
or female, who goes forth bearing precious seed or 
the sharp sickle, trusting in the Lord first for the 
work and taking it up at His voice ; and trusting 
in Him, also, for both seed and sickle, and for the 
good ground and its increase, and for the sheaves 
of the garner — is not this trust work all the same 
as orphanages and homes with their blessed fruits ? 



THE MANTLE OF POWER. 105 

Yet even in this higher work, purely spiritual — 
the highest given mortals to perform — there may- 
be trust for work and trust in work, without trust 
for overcoming power within. 

A true and noble servant of God was in a good 
and useful position, but found himself trammeled 
by it. In it he could not give undivided atten- 
tion to the salvation of souls. He had money to 
collect and business of his society to attend to, and 
was kept within the restricted limits of a certain 
district, without liberty to go beyond, however 
urgent the call might be. He gave it up. Cast 
himself on God, stood free and awaited the voice 
of the Lord for evangelistic work. It came. He 
went. The place was one he had never dreamed 
of being called to. A wonderful refreshing from 
the presence of the Lord attended his labors. The 
Lord provided for his wants. He went from place 
to place, trusting in the Lord alike for his call to 
each, and for his presence and power in every one. 
Years passed on. Three thousand souls and more 
were added to the Lord. Yet this trustful man's 
own soul was ill at ease, and grew more and more 
unrestful as he went on. He knew that there 
must be for him a rest and a power which he had 
not gained. In a public meeting he made an 
open confession of his case, and an earnest appeal 
for instruction. In a private interview, a sister, 



106 GLADNESS IX JESUS. 

who knew wherein he lacked, bade him let him- 
self alone ; that is, cast the care of his heart all 
on Jesus, as he did of his work, and then leave it 
— let it alone — in Jesus' hands. " I see it ! I 
see it!" he exclaimed; and he did see it, for 
from that moment he began to have the peace and 
power of God within him, even as he had before 
had the power of God with him. Then, too, the 
power of God with him was more than doubled 
over to him. In one day after that, he actually 
accomplished more than he had done before in a 
whole month. 

Tell me, beloved, is not this a true, practical 
exposition of the promise of the Holy Comforter, 
as it was made by our Lord to His disciples ? " He 
is with you, and shall be in you." And tell me, 
is not the mantle of power just this in its two-fold 
preciousness : the power of the Holy Ghost with 
us and within us ? The power is divine, not hu- 
man, whether with or within us. Like the mantle 
of Elijah, it wraps us about in our souls in its 
peace-giving folds, and with us it breaks down all 
obstacles before us in the pathway appointed us, 
and is the salt which heals the poisoned fountains 
to which we are sent. Like the mantle of Elijah, 
it is a thing apart from us, in God, and yet it is 
upon us and within us by reason of the presence 
of God with and within us. It is trust that makes 



THE MANTLE OF POWEB. 107 

it ours. Faith is the hand that takes up the 
mantle, puts it on, wears and uses it, whether for 
conquests within or without. And the faith that 
does this is simply that which apprehends the 
presence of God with and within us, in loving 
power to guide us by the Spirit and work the 
works of God in us and by us. 

The foundation for this faith is that of the ex- 
ceeding great and precious promises, which in 
Christ Jesus are yea and amen. The hard-easy 
lesson given us to learn, then, is a very simple one : 
to believe — to believe in Jesus — to accept it as true 
at His word, that God is with us and is within us in 
all the fullness of His loving, living power in His 
three-fold office work as Father, Son and Spirit, to 
whom be glory forever. And this lesson learned, 
is the mantle of power taken up. 




XL 

WHO IS THIS? 
"LEANING ON JESUS 



O hallowed, heavenly rest; 
Leaning, Jesus, on Thy breast; 
Hearing, O most gracious Lord, 
Thy softest whispered word ! 
Yes, hallowed, heavenly rest; 
Leaning, Jesus, on Thy breast I 

Solomon's Song viii: 5. 



John xiii : 23. 




I^ERE is one who is a great, glad surprise 
li to herself. Let her tell her own story. 

" I feel constrained to speak of a wonderful 
change through which my Saviour has recently 
brought me. My cup is full and running over, 
and I must honor my dear Lord, who is pouring 
into it every day, more and more of His owa 
abounding fullness. 

" At first I held my peace. I could not really 
believe the change would abide. It seemed too 
good to be true ; too great to last. Like those of 
the captivity, when released I seemed as one 

(108) 



WHO IS THIS? 109 

in a heavenly dream. And, like Peter led out of 
prison, I wist not that it was true, but was as one 
in an angelic vision. 

" At last it has become real, and so great that I 
cannot but speak of it. 

" Indeed ! have I done right in keeping my 
lips so long closed ? O how, in days gone by, 
I have watched over my own dear children, one 
by one, in their infancy, to call out and catch 
the first look of recognition, and the first kiss of 
affection ! 

sl True, our blessed Saviour's love for us does 
not flow from our love to Him, and is not checked 
and chilled by our lack of returns. Yet love like 
His surely is gratified, when we show our appreci- 
ation of it in all suitable ways. The mother covers 
her child over and over again with caresses and 
kisses, and O how her heart dances for joy, when 
its little lips are first put up to meet hers with a 
kiss ! And how warm it makes her in the region 
of the heart, when its little arms are clasped about 
her neck ! 

li Well, I am but as one of the least of the 
Lord's little ones, yet I feel ashamed that He has 
had to wait so long for this acknowledgment of 
His wonderful manifestations of love to me. 

" Even now, after many, many weeks have gone 
by since He met me and took me into His loving, 



110 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

life-long embrace, the thought of my newly found 
relation to Him comes over me as a surprise. I am 
a wonder to myself. I am frequently asking, 
6 Can this be me ? ' The question in Solomon's 
Song concerning the happy spouse, ' Who is this 
that cometh up out of the wilderness, leaning on 
her beloved ? ' comes to my lips at every turn con- 
cerning myself. And you will not wonder at this 
when I have told the part this question has had in 
this recent wonderful change, and the place the 
bridal relation to Christ has had once and again in 
my Christian experience. 

" Do not misunderstand me now, in speaking of 
the recent change as if it were my conversion. 
Really, I do not know when to date my conversion, 
but it was many, many years ago. While yet a 
child my feelings were deep and my desire for 
light was great. But, as too many children do, I 
kept all to myself and groped my way alone as best 
I could in the dark, until finally the Lord sent a 
precious messenger to us. What others learned 
of him I know not, but he taught me two things 
precious to know, which filled me with joy in the 
Lord. First, I accepted the word of the Lord from 
his lips, that whosoever believeth in the Son hath, 
life. I believed in the Son, and knew that I had 
life. Next, he taught me the doctrine of the bride. 
This I accepted, too, with all my heart as I then 



WHO IS THIS? Ill 

understood it, though now I see a world of power 
in it of which I knew nothing then. 

" These two things blended sweetly into one and 
filled me with the assurance of hope. My con- 
version dates back somewhere in the days of my 
childhood, but now I came into an assurance so 
full and so sweet that my soul 

Revelled with delight in the Lord, 
And ranged with joy through His word. 

My hand was sought by a true Christian man. I 
married him. I would never have married any 
other than a real servant of God. The Lord 
gave us children, my husband was a minister, 
duties and responsibilities grew upon us both, 
my sins of heart, alas too often of the lips and of 
the life also, grieved me, and my cross became 
very, very heavy. 

" Think not now that I am about to tell you a 
tale of wandering from the Lord. Not so. 
Never had I felt my responsibilities greater. 
Never had I so earnestly sought the right line of 
duty. Yet in all this my cross became heavier 
and heavier every day of my life. 

O those weary, weary years, how sad they were! 
O these happy, happy days, how glad they are ! 

As I look back I can compare myself to nothing 
so true to the life through more than a score of 



112 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

years, as a weary lone pilgrim in a wilderness — 
not coming up out of it. No. No hope of that 
until death, but journeying on over rough and 
flinty stones, cutting and bruising her feet at every 
step amongst thorns and briers, tearing and pierc- 
ing her flesh, bearing a cross, heavy at first, and 
growing heavier and heavier every day. 

" My faith in the ransom of Calvary, with its final 
result in the bridal welcome in heaven, did not 
fail me. If it had, I should surely soon have 
found a tenting place for a brief time in some 
bedlam on earth and then passed on to the endless 
bedlam beyond. But no ! hope still sent its 
gleam from afar down through my darkest hours 
to fall on my path as a lamp to my feet and break 
in cheering rays around my heavy, heavy heart. 

"I was saved by hope. Yet it was only by hope. 
The Apostle's definition of faith, which embraces 
both the present and the future, was only half 
mine in anything like fullness. My faith was, in- 
deed, the substance of things hoped for in heaven, 
but alas ! it was not the evidence of things not 
seen here on earth. I knew my Reedeemer as 
living for me in heaven, but I knew Him not as 
living with me and within me here below. I 
believed in Him as the bearer of my sins in His 
own body on the tree, but had not yet found Him 
as my deliverer from sin, nor as already my own 



WHO IS THIS 7 113 

wedded husband, bearing me, burdens and all, in 
this my pilgrimage on earth. 

" The time came at last for these new and wonder- 
ful lessons. The Lord sent from afar other mes- 
sengers to us, and the burden of their message 
was that Jesus is ever present, and is a present 
Saviour from sin. 

" I listened to their words as to music pleasant to 
the ear. Yes, and it did come to my heart, though 
not with full power to set me free. Others, I 
thought, might be saved from their sins, but my 
case was peculiar. Others might be helped to 
bear their crosses and be happy, but not I. My 
cross must be borne life-Ion^ — could net be laid 
off. Then how could I ever be happy ? Still, I 
pondered these things, and could not help hoping 
against hope for the happiness I saw in these mes- 
sengers of the Lord. 

" It came, but not by deliverance from the cross, 
but under it, in Jesus. Eeally, is it not more like 
the poetic complement of a romance than the actual 
rounding out of a true Christian experience ? Yet 
it is true. The Lord came to me again in the doc- 
trine of the bride. Not now through hope, as my 
spouse awaiting me in heaven after death ; but as 
my wedded husband, supporting me all the way 
through life. 

u I took up a printed sermon to read. The text 



lU GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

was the wondering question in Solomon's Song 
concerning the happy bride, ' Who is this that 
cometh up out of the wilderness, leaning on her 
beloved ? ' The picture was the long cherished 
one of my hope, brought down from heaven to 
earth, and brought from beyond the grave into the 
present moment, and I said, Yes, it is so ; Christ is 
here in very deed, and I knew it not. How 
heavenly is this place. My beloved is mine and I 
am His. 

u < Who is this that cometh up out of the wilder- 
ness ? ' Yes, surely, I am coming up out of the 
wilderness. * Leaning on her beloved ? ' Yes, 
indeed, I am leaning on my beloved. No longer 
a lone pilgrim with bleeding feet and torn flesh in 
the wilderness, but a happy, happy wife, leaning 
on her husband, coming up into the land. No 
longer looking afar to her absent Lord to send help 
to cheer her in her lonely way and aid her in bear- 
ing her heavy cross, but now looking upon her 
loving Lord, present with her and bearing her, 
cross and all. 

"My position was all changed, changed in a mo- 
ment. Not my circumstances ; they remained the 
same. Not myself; I was the same weak and 
helpless one in myself as before. No, but my 
position in relation to Jesus. Not that I had not 
trusted in the Saviour and loved Him before. He 



WHO IS THIS? 115 

had been my only trust. But until now He had 
been my Saviour for me in heaven ; now he 
was my Saviour with me on earth. Until now 
He had been my sin-bearer in heaven ; now He 
had become my deliverer from sin here below. 
Until now I looked to Him for help from afar ; 
now I leaned on Him, as my ample support 
always near. Yea, nearer than my soul is to my 
body. 

O, these happy, happy days, how glad they are, 
O, those weary, weary years, how sad they were. 

" It is early yet to speak of fruitage. But, to the 
praise of the Vine and of the Husbandman be it 
said, that the almost fruitless branch, bearing only 
leaves before, already has a few ripe clusters to be 
thankful for. 

" At home, my own dear children, — leaned over 
one by one, one and all, with myself or my be- 
loved, — are one by one now for the first time, com- 
ing to me and taking upon themselves the yoke of 
Christ and learning the sweet lessons of meekness 
and of rest which Christ alone can teach. He is 
giving them all to me in Himself, even as I have 
given them all to be His in Himself. 

" Abroad, my class of mothers has more than 
doubled in their attendance at our stated meeting. 



116 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

Those already believers before but keeping closed 
lips, are freely speaking of the things new as well 
as old, which the Lord is doing in their hearts and 
households. Those not before converted, seem 
moved upon to become the Lord's. And our 
meetings are more and more like the one of old in 
the upper chamber, where all are filled and made 
to speak with other tongues the wonderful works 
of God. 

" Scarcely anything surprises me more than to 
see how others are drawn to me now who once 
avoided me, and how I am drawn to those w T ho 
once repelled my heart. 

" Yes, one thing is indeed more surprising than 
this. My work is more than doubled, and yet it is no 
cross at all, but a delight. The secret of it I see 
to be this : I accept now all the work my hands 
find to do as given me by my present Lord to do 
for Him. He appoints my daily work and He 
does all things well. He makes me His helpmeet 
in work as well as His spouse in life. And I do 
with my might what my hands find to do, leaning 
on Him for all the might I have to do it with. So 
I work easy, and He establishes the work of my 
hands upon me." 

So far the story. Tell me, is there not in its 
two pictures of the one person, — one, of the lone 



WHO IS THIS? 117 

pilgrim in the wilderness, and the other of the 
happy spouse coming up out of the wilderness, — 
and in the transition from the one to the other, 
something to be pondered by others for themselves, 
and by us all for the church of Christ ? 

O victorious, glorious rest, 
Leaning, Lord, upon Thy breast; 
With Thy banner wide unfurled, 
For the conquest of the world ! 
Yes, victorious, glorious rest, 
Leaning, Lord, upon Thy breast ! 




XII. 

OUR HEART BURDENS FOR LOVED 

ONES. 

" All your cares on Him." 

Wilt thou accept the magic key 

Thy loving Lord holds out to thee ? 
If so thy burden, borne so long, 
Shall turn to-day to cheery song : 
Thy midnight gloom shall noon become; 
Thy dungeon be a palace home ; 
Thy broken heart shall be made whole, 
And peace shall fill thy troubled soul. 

Wilt thou accept the magic key 
Thy loving Lord holds out to thee ? 

Then thou shalt run the Christian race 

With facile, strong and steady pace, 

And prove Christ's wondrous promise true, 
11 The works I have wrought thou shalt do; 

Yea, greater deeds than I have done, 

Hon'ring the Father in the Son.' 7 

||j|||URDENS on account of loved ones. O 

||if|| how many, many weary hearts are heavy 

laden with them to-day ! Yet what can 

they do ? Every expedient has been tried that they 

can think of, and has failed of the end. Heavier 

and heavier, day by day, their burdens have grown, 

until they are well-nigh crushed under them, and 

(118) 



HEART BURDENS FOR LOVED ONES. 119 

in despair of relief. Is there no relief for them ? 
Yes, thank God, there is, and it is immediately at 
hand. To the glory of His grace who first intrusted 
to Jesus this blessed office, there is a Burden-bearer, 
and there is a way of casting our burdens on Him. 

A little cluster of examples, if I may so call 
them, will serve to illustrate this whole matter. 

A few followers of Christ were recently con- 
vened in an upper room. The general church 
was not badly represented in that little assembly. 
In numbers it was, at most, not more than twice 
that of the Apostolic band after Judas had been 
sifted out. Yet in it were members of all the 
leading, and of some of the lesser denominations. 
In variety, their individuality was as distinctive as 
that of Peter and John, Thomas and James, and 
their fellow disciples. At least half of those 
present were women. Like the one hundred and 
twenty in the pentecostal chamber, of whom many 
were also women, all seemed to be filled with the 
Spirit, and all were ready to speak with new 
tongues, of the wonderful works of God. AH 
were free — none were offended. Methodists were 
not chilled by Quaker quietude or Presbyterian 
staidness, for in truth there was not enough of 
either to chill any one, much less a Methodist in 
full fervor. 

Friends, Episcopalians, Baptists, Presbyterians 



120 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

and Congregationalists, were stirred but not stum- 
bled by Methodist demonstrations, because they felt 
them to be from within, not put on. 

Those unaccustomed to the female voice, in 
social prayer and speech, were charmed with its 
sweetness, and deeply moved by its tenderness, for 
it is as true of the church as of the family, that if 
man is the head, woman is the heart. None 
were more delighted with the singing than the 
Friends, for it was heavenly. And some who 
were accustomed to heavier and drver strains, took 
lessons in the Methodistic practical philosophy of 
sacred music, which may hereafter profit others as 
well as themselves, in their various circles of wor- 
ship and work. In fact, there was a wonderful touch 
of pentecostal sweetness and power upon all their 
hearts, and it drew them into a unity, the zest of 
which was increased rather than diminished, by a 
sense of their personal and denominational dis- 
tinctiveness, even as the unity in the rainbow is 
none the less, and the beauty vastly the greater, 
because there are seen in it seven distinct colors 
instead of one, all of which are one in their 
source, as well as one in the bow. 

THE TOUCHSTONE OF THE HOUR 

was the Apostle's precious assurance, " My God 
shall supply all your need, according to His riches 
in glory by Christ Jesus." 



HEART BURDENS FOR LOVED ONES. 121 

This was applied by the question answered by 
each in turn around the circle. 

" Is all my need supplied by Christ Jesus ? ' 

Seldom, probably, has this question been an- 
swered in any circle of like numbers, by testi- 
monies so full, so varied, so rich and jet uni- 
formly in the affirmative, as to the supply of all 
personal spiritual need. 

Two or three only stated, that, although their 
sins were forgiven, and the evidence of their 
adoption clear, yet they felt deeply the need of 
deliverance from sin itself, and had come to the 
meeting hoping to find it. And one answered 
that he had not yet found the Saviour at all, but 
was earnestly seeking Him. By far the greater 
number, however, testified that the Apostle's 
assurance was made good to them in respect to 
their own wants of soul, that Jesus was made of 
God unto them wisdom, righteousness, sanctifica- 
tion and redemption. 

But when the true emphasis came to be laid 
upon the word all — all your need — without the 
limiting words personal and spiritual, most of them 
were startled, and from not a few it brought forth 
deep drawn, negative sighs, and frank confessions 
of wants unmet. 

Full one-third of those present expressed them- 
selves as burdened for loved ones — some for bus- 



122 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

bands, some for brothers and sisters, but more for 
children. 

One mother had been so long, and so deeply 
anxious for her two sons, one just verging upon 
manhood, and the other just emerging into the 
great world — both unsaved, both peculiarly in 
peril, that her account of it, given in tones which 
can come only from a mother's- heart, touched all 
w T ho heard it. 

Another awakened sympathies still deeper, by 
speaking of her eldest son ; how she had wrestled 
for him in prayer, and how the Lord had con- 
verted him, and then how a skeptical relative, of 
whom her boy thinks more highly than he ought, 
had succeeded in detaching him from her, and 
apparently from Jesus, and was leading him cap- 
tive into skeptical notions, falsely ennobled as 
" liberal ideas," and into the vortex of pleasure and 
destruction, and, finally, how she had tried every 
thing to win him back, and cried to God in vain 
to save him. 

Another, with evidently the deepest reluctance, 
in words forced out by the irrepressible impulsion 
of an almost broken heart, told of her fruitless 
agonies and efforts for her husband, the father of 
her children, who was so completely in the toils 
of Satan, as to be hopeless to all but the power of 
Him with whom all things are possible, and then 



HEART BURDENS FOR LOVED ONES. 123 

she began to speak of her first-born son, who 
seemed to be following in the footsteps of his 
father, when she fairly broke down in silence, 
shedding tears in abundance, and at last found 
relief in sobs. All were moved with inexpressi- 
ble pity, and sat silently weeping with her, until 
one suggested bowing a few moments in silent 
prayer. And this was followed by audible sup- 
plications for her, and for each and all of these 
burdened ones, and the loved ones for whom they 
were burdened, when the question was again 
resumed, and its circuit completed. 

One of the saddest features in almost every 
case, was what might be called the reactionary 
effect of unanswered prayer upon the burdened 
ones themselves. Nearly all of them supposed 
they had prayed in faith, and yet had failed, and 
it was unaccountable to them. Then they had 
inquired of themselves whether some unknown 
sin in themselves, might not account for the failure 
of God to answer. 

Not one of them seemed to understand the true 
character of the real prayer of faith. They took 
it for granted that faith agonizes instead of resting 
— struggles instead of lying still in the hands of 
Jesus, exercises our strength in holding Jesus, 
instead of accepting the fact that He holds us by 
His power, and just letting Him do it. 



124 GLADNESS IJST JESUS. 

Applying this false conception of the prayer of 
faith to the case of their loved ones, — instead 
of bringing them to Jesus, and putting them into 
His hands, and there resting the case, and ceasing 
all anxiety, turning them over as they were 
without one plea, in trust to Jesus, as they had 
done with themselves, they thought they must 
hold on in agonizing struggle, trying to believe 
they would be saved until in fact they should be. 

Thus they failed to intrust them to Jesus, and 
so failed both of peace in their own souls, and of 
the work of Jesus in the souls of their loved ones. 

The time had now come, however, when they 
were to learn a new and precious application of 
the old precious lesson of faith. 

That comprehensive assurance of the Apostle 
had another office to perform in their little assem- 
bly. Having been the touchstone to bring out 
their merit, it was now to be 

THE TALISMAN 

to bring them into rest. The question was changed 
to this : " Will my God supply all my need, ac- 
cording to the riches of His glory, by Christ 
Jesus ? " And again emphasis was laid on the 
word ally as covering our burdens for loved ones 
as well as for .our own souls. 

It was a beautiful feature that no voice was 
raised in reproach, direct or implied. No heart 



HEART BURDENS FOR LOVED ONES. 125 

seemed moved by such questions, chilling to love, 
and killing to faith, as "Have you been faithful in 
training your children ? " " Did you marry an 
unconverted man?' All seemed to understand 
that past faithfulness or unfaithfulness, was not to 
be inquired after, but present faith inspired, if 
possible. So each had some encouraging word to 
say, or enlightening fact to give. 

Such instances as the following, were related by 
one and another; A woman, in her simplicity 
and ignorance of the risk she ran, married a man 
who was unconverted, and a hard drinker, in fact 
a drunkard. He went from bad to worse, abused 
her shamefully, beat her cruelly, almost drove her 
to distraction. At last she was about to abandon 
him, but instead of doing it, she was induced to 
begin anew to pray earnestly for him. And while 
he was in a drunken fit, abusing her, she fell on 
her knees and gave him up to the Saviour. Im- 
mediately her own soul was filled with an inex- 
pressible peace in God, and pity for her husband. 
The Spirit moved upon his heart, brought him to 
conviction and conversion, and kept him a sober, 
Christian man, until, in full faith, he passed away 
from earth. 

A father and mother had an only daughter, the 
pride and joy of their home. They were Chris- 
tians, she was not. They were convinced of the 



126 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

Christian's privilege of full salvation and were 
eagerly seeking to realize it, and they were equally 
anxious that she should be converted. They con- 
secrated all to the Lord, and were willing that He 
should take everything into His own hands, them- 
selves and their reputation, property and all, but 
they were still deeply burdened for their daughter, 
and instead of putting her case into the Lord's 
hands just as she was, and there leaving it, they 
urged and insisted that she should be first changed 
by the Spirit. At last they did give her up as she 
was, in her carelessness, and then they found rest, 
the full rest of faith for themselves at once, and it 
was not long before she was touched by the power 
of God and renewed. 

A mother brought her children one by one to 
the Lord and laid them over upon Him. Her 
own heart rested in Him for them and the peace of 
God filled her soul. They were yet unsaved. 
One of her sons was so bad that it seemed scarcely 
possible that he could become worse, and she knew 
it well, but it did not disturb her peace, and could 
not shake her confidence in the Lord. She knew 
that lie who had given her peace had all power in 
heaven and earth, and that the answer of power in 
the souls of her children would sooner or later 
follow the answer of peace for them in her own 
soul. Her boy, bad as he was, did become worse. 



HEART BURDENS FOR LOVED ONES. 127 

He gambled, he drank, he fought in the ring, he 
delighted in the cockpit and in the dogpit, and at 
last became so brutalized as to strip and enter the 
dogpit and fight with bull dogs like another bull 
dog as he made himself. His mother died in the 
peace of God, commending her son to Jesus, in the 
fullest confidence of his salvation, while he was 
yet on the descending scale sliding down to perdi- 
tion. At last, long after her death, one morning, 
after a night of gambling debauch, as he was 
walking in the street meditating a further step of 
desperation, he was arrested by the Spirit, and 
within a fortnight was turned to the Lord. Not 
long afterward he had a still deeper work wrought 
in his soul, and now is one of the meekest and 
lowliest of men, as earnest in following Jesus as 
he formerly was in serving Satan and sin. 

A question asked by one of the burdened ones 
was instantly caught up and pressed by the others. 
" What then — are we to rest all with the Lord, 
and cease praying for our loved ones ? " 

This question was answered by another, t€ Did 
you cease praying for yourselves when you rested 
all with the Lord for your own salvation ? " 

" O no, no, no." 

« What then did you do ? " 

" We ceased praying in unbelief as if the Lord 
was unwilling to save us, and begun expressing 



128 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

trust in Him and praising Him as more willing to 
save us than we were to be saved." 

" Did you cease praying when you rested all in 
the Lord for sanctification ? " 

" No, but w T e did cease crying to Him as if He 
was afar off and not willing to fulfill His promises, 
and then our very breathing seemed to become 
restful prayer with ceaseless thanksgiving." 

u Precisely so. Then cast your burdens for 
your loved ones on the Lord as you did your own, 
and let Him turn your unbelieving cries for them 
into believing praise, for what saith the Word ? It 
saith, ' Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. 5 And 
again, ( Whoso ofFereth praise glorifieth God. 5 55 

Yet another question had to be answered. 

" Are we then to stop trying to persuade our 
loved ones to come to Christ ? 55 

" You are to put their case first out of your own 
hands into the hands of Jesus, as absolutely as if 
you were never more to have anything to do in the 
matter, for so and only so will lie undertake it at 
your hands. And then you are to say in reference 
to them as you do in reference to yourself, Lord, 
what wilt Thou have me to do ? and stand ready 
to do anything He may show you in their behalf. 55 

In conclusion, it scarcely seems necessary to say 
that nearly every one who came into that upper 
room with a burden left it with a song. O that 



HEART BURDENS FOR LOVED ONES. 129 

all would come and cast their burdens on the 
Lord. Then would they find the Apostle's assu- 
rance fulfilled to them, and all their need would 
be supplied according to God's riches in glory by 
Christ Jesus. Amen. 




XIII. 



AT HAND. 



Light springs up : the day is nigh ; 
See : the roseate blush, 
In gentlest, sweetest flush, 

Spreads along the eastern sky. 



* { The Lord alone shall he exalted in that day."— Isaiah ii. 11. 
<l Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salva- 
tion."— Isaiah xii. 3, 




jj^NE stands peering out into the darkest hour 
of the night. Star after star comes forth to 
the view, and brightest of all, the star of the 
morning. The heart is filled with gladness in their 
beautiful beams, but while yet the gaze is upon 
them they fade and are lost in the twilight of 
dawn, and the gladness is swallowed up in the 
joy of day at hand. 

Beloved, are we not compassed about by the 
shadows of such an hour? Are not the two 
instances of trust work, not in full trust, given 
in a preceding chapter, stars in its bosom ? If 
we continue to look, may we not find other stars 



AT BAND. 131 

of greater magnitude and diverse order from these, 
and amongst them the morning star ? 

You remember that one of these was a trust 
work of charity, and the other a trust work of 
evangelism. These two may stand representatives 
of two great fields of Christian work. High rep- 
resentatives, too, they are, each in its way, though 
neither of them have made much noise in the 
world. The one, you remember, was the work of 
providing and sustaining, upon trust, Christian 
homes for the fatherless babes of husbandless 
mothers, and for the despised mothers with their 
little ones : — a work wonderfully Christ-like in its 
spirit. The other was that of evangelizing, upon 
trust both for support and success, — a work truly 
apostolic. 

Here is another, diverse from both of these, not 
less significant than either. Its rise is this : In the 
heart of one of the greatest of modern cities, in one 
of the darkest of its many dark quarters, a woman 
stands in the open street gazing upon the swarming 
denizens of the quarter. They seem endless in 
number and hopeless in degradation. She sees it 
to be heathenism concentrated and intensified. 

The question arises : What can be done ? A 
ray of light comes. In her girlhood she had been 
led to the Living Word by means of the written 
Word. Then the power of bringing the Living 



132 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

Word to others through the written Word by the 
living voice of the Bible reader, had been demon- 
strated in the cottages around her home. Hearts 
before dark had been made light in the Lord, and 
hovels made sweet Christian homes, and her own 
soul had been enriched in the work. Thus the 
love of the Bible and of Bible reading had grown 
with her years and now was about to become the 
feature of her life. 

O, if only the Bible could be brought into the 
dens of these denizens of the valley of destruction, 
by the living reader, then both hearts and homes 
might be transformed like those she had known in 
the country ! Could it be ? It might be, if 
women already saved through the Bible from 
amongst these lost ones, could be sent with the 
Bible to them. The cost would not be great. It 
would be cheap missionary work. She had of her 
own, a little income. That she would gladly 
devote in employing and supplying one Bible 
woman for the work. She would do it if the 
Lord would send her the woman. The woman 
came, — was sent, was blest. It worked like a 
charm. Now for another. The woman offered. 
But where the money? A Christian of wealth, 
well known, could supply it without feeling it. 
Was appealed to. Refused. And this caused the 
resolve never again to ask a penny of any mortal, 



AT HAND. 133 

but to trust in the Lord alike for readers and for 
money. Soon both came. More and more. Now 
nearly two hundred and fifty Bible women mission- 
ate as many districts, covering most of the city and 
some regions beyond, and as many lady superin- 
tendents have oversight of their work. A Protes- 
tant nurse house and a mission house have been 
added. All on trust ; all prosperous. No debt ; 
no begging. No money wasted in collecting 
agencies or advertising appeals. No time lost in 
running after workers or money. 'The Lord pro- 
vides, and is glorified. 

There is a special relief fund, the offerings for 
which are kept separate from those for the mission 
and used to alleviate suffering and want. It is 
small, however, and wholly subordinate. The 
work is administered beautifully, systematically,, 
promptly, and goes on like clock-work, without 
salaried force save only one single woman as a 
private secretary, and one plain man as a book- 
keeper, and her own house is the office and centre 
of all. The charity work for the mothers and 
children was, like this, administrative, but, unlike 
this, it was local and all directly under the eye of 
the Christian woman upon whom it had been laid. 
The evangelistic work was not administrative, but 
personal ; a great work, but comprising the labors 
and support of only one man. 



134 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

But here is a missionary work overspreading 
and spreading beyond one of the greatest of modern 
cities, and embracing between two and three hun- 
dred missionaries, all sent to the head of the mis- 
sion by the Lord, and all sustained by means sent 
by the Lord, and all in answer to prayer. This is 
another star in the bosom of the dark hour, and it 
represents altogether another phase of the great 
whole of Christian work. Its showing is that 
the trust principle works in administrative mis- 
sion fields covering large numbers and no little 
space, with the same charming facility, economy 
and efficiency as in personal labors and local 
charities. 

This sketch is of course recognized by all as that 
of Mrs. Ellen Ranyard and her " London Bible 
Women's Mission." 

George Mailer's work in Bristol, England, is a 
star of larger magnitude in breadth, numbers and 
variety. Its field is the world for its missions. It 
is in a sense, in the persons of Mr. Miiller and his 
four hundred missionaries, also evangelistic ; and 
in its orphanages, with their nearly two thousand 
inmates, it is a wonderful charity. The one thing, 
however, in which it is specially instructive to us 
beyond the various works before represented, is 
the facile capacity of growth it exemplifies. Where 
on earth or in all history is there seen an orphan- 



AT HAND. 135 

age or a mission, starting so small and reaching 
such proportions in a time so short ? And all 
without church or state patronage, or collecting 
agencies or appeals ! All by the will of God 
through faith in Him. Yet this is not the star of 
the morning at last. 

Others of lesser magnitude further East gladden 
the view, each beautiful after its kind and each 
representing some grand special field or phase of 
Christian work. Such is the singular and success- 
ful work of Pastor Fliedner, and that also of Louis 
Harms, not to mention others, in Germany ; and 
also the Dorothea Trudel work in Switzerland, 
continued by the son-in-law of Bishop Gobat of 
Jerusalem, since Dorothea was called up to the 
Jerusalem above. 

Yet these all do not fully foreshow the coming 
day, however much they may foretell about it. 

Trust work indicates one feature of the day at 
hand. That is, the full, practical recognition of 
the sovereignty of God in His own kingdom. The 
only way it can be successfully done is that of 
accepting the work as of God's choosing for the 
worker ; and then of accepting, also, the money 
and the helpers as of God's providing. And then 
of accepting, at every step of progress, the measures 
of administration and expansion as of God's unfold- 
ing. Thus in everything, from inception to com- 



136 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

pletion, it is God's will and not the will of the 
worker that rules. 

And all work, — not alone technical " trust 
work/' — that is from inception to completion con- 
sciously and purposely in the will of God, is truly 
the work of faith, truly trust work, truly under 
God's sovereignty and of His kingdom. And in 
the day at hand all work will, in this comprehen- 
sive sense, be truly trust work. Yet if every 
Christian work in all the earth could be and should 
be truly a work of faith, and all Christians should 
become workers together with God by faith as to 
field, and sustenance, and help, it would not bring 
the day. 

The light which makes the day is triple in its 
rays. This is only single. Two other rays must 
needs be added. Divine sovereignty alone does 
not comprise a millennium. Divine power and love 
must be unfolded and combined with it, and these, 
like sovereignty in guidance and providence, are 
experimentally accepted by faith alone. In other 
words, full trust for power and for love, must be 
added to full trust for and in work, to bring in the 
day. Strangely enough, we must turn our eyes 
from the East into the West for the earliest appear- 
ance of the orient harbingers we seek. And, 
thank God, here we find them. Yes, and now 
also in the East as well. 



AT HAND. 137 

Look for a moment at some of their unfoldings. 
The complex work comprised in the public mind 
under one general name, " Dr. Cullis's Work," or 
"The Consumptive's Home/' in Boston, was 
founded like those over the water already referred 
to, as a trust work of God's own appointment, and 
conducted for many months, growing into years, 
in full trust for guidance and for sustenance, help- 
ers and all. It was, and its founder under God 
w r as, fully in the Divine sovereignty by faith. The 
other two elements w T hich faith for them brings, 
were lacking, but are now supplied. 

The doctor tells us that he found the fret, and 
worry and fire of sin fn his heart, notwithstanding 
all his trust in the Lord for the dear work. The 
work w r ent well, but in his own soul there was 
friction. He could keep sin pretty well under in 
expression, so as not to let it make disgraceful dis- 
plays of its ugliness, but as for conquering it, he 
found that impossible. A painful sense of his 
weakness and of the weight of his heart-sins grew 
upon him and became intolerable. At last the 
finger of God by the Lord's Prayer, touched his 
heart and he was instantly free. It was the finger 
of power through the faith of power in God our 
Saviour. The words used were these, " Deliver 
us from evil. Thine is the power." In these 
words he saw the evil from which the Lord delivers 



138 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

to be not merely external, but mainly internal, or 
heart evil. And he saw, also, that the power was 
the Lord's, and was that of deliverance. 

He had asked for help — help from the Lord to 
keep down first, and then help to conquer his 
heart-sin ; but now he saw that it was the Lord's 
own prerogative to deliver and the power His own 
to do it. Seeing this he instantly gave over all his 
own tryings and cryings for help } and began trust- 
ing the Lord for deliverance — : and had it. The 
power was present when faith accepted it, and then 
came into his soul the other element, the sunshine 
of the soul and sweetness of the kingdom— an 
overflowing sense of God's love. 

From that hour dates a .new power, also, and 
loveliness in the work. One by one the missionary 
and other helpers came in like precious faith. A 
meeting to promote it is established. The atmos- 
phere of the Home is filled with love. The hard- 
est are melted, chains fall off, souls are saved, and 
God is glorified. Salvation God appoints for walls 
and bulwarks, and for gates praise. Here, then, 
we find in a single spot full trust work in full trust 
for salvation as well as for work. This is not the 
only gleam of the rising day. Here is another 
with an advancing significance peculiarly its 
own. 

Thus far we have seen first, special charity works 



AT HAND. 139 

accepted, sustained and administered by faith ; and 
also, personal evangelistic work wrought in trust 
for both field, sustenance and fruitage ; and broad 
missionary works undertaken and carried on upon 
1 the faith principle for missionaries and for means : 
and so have seen the sovereignty of the Lord in 
Christian work beautifully exemplified in various 
fields. And last we have seen, in a given work, 
the elements of power and love superadded by a 
superadded faith, and bringing in the precious sun- 
shine of the fullness of the blessings of the gospel 
into all the region of its prevalence. 

Now it remains to see the power of this full trust 
ror power and for love, as well as for work and for 
guidance and sustenance, grasping the hitherto 
hopeless classes of the lost, and winning them to 
Christ. Is there virtue in the gospel to save the 
fallen ? Is there a faith in Christ to reach and 
redeem them from their pollution ? The question 
is not whether there is charity to provide homes 
and make efforts to win them from their haunts 
and their vices. This has been shown for years. 
But the question is whether there is faith for power 
to save them ? If there is, then the same faith 
may, under divine inspiration and appointment and 
enlargement, go out after and seek and save, also, 
the lost inebriates, of whom there are such multi- 
tudes of our own Anglo Saxon race, and all the 



140 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

other hopeless ones, and all of the lost. Is there 
such a faith ? 

Here is an example of it. It is in the place, of 
all places, to put faith to the test — Water street, 
New York. It is for the class, of all classes 
least hopeful, — the most fallen of the fallen. A 
man in full trust, (William H. Boole,) accepts the 
work as a trust work from the Lord. A house, 
once a dance house, is opened as a mission chapel 
and a home. A year passes ; the home is full ; 
the chapel is filled several times a week. A meet- 
ing quite Pentecostal is held in the tipper chamber 
from week to week. Many are baptized and go 
out to speak in other tongues of the wonderful 
works of God, and kindle fires hundreds of miles 
away. Many men and women are won to Jesus in 
the chapel, and the twenty, more or less, of those 
who have taken refuge in the home, have also 
found refuge in Christ. That some of these may 
fail to justify their own hopes and the hopes of 
those who have sought them and cared for them, 
is highly probable. But so much as this has been 
shown, that full trust for power will carry and sus- 
tain those whom the Lord calls to the work into 
the most desperate places, amongst the most hope- 
less classes, and give them to see salvation in 
measure fully equal to their faith. 

But how about this full trust ? Is it not always 



AT HAND. 141 

to remain the rare and wonderful attainment of a 
chosen few ? The answer to this is the crowning 
fact of all, and the true star of the morning at 
hand. Never, since the world began, has there 
been seen before such a tidal wave of desire for 
this higher Christian life, as that which is now 
rising up to roll over the earth. God is evidently- 
moving the hearts of His people to look and long for, 
expect and receive, the millennial faith which will 
usher in the millennial day. Let it come. Amen. 





XIV. , 

AN AFTER-EXPERIENCE, FROM A 
PROPHET'S RECORD. 

^HE record is old, but the story is as fresh as 
if of to-day. You will find it in the oldest 
of books in very small compass. It is all 
in one short chapter — the sixth of Isaiah. You 
may read it in two or three minutes, and if it shall 
be illuminated to you as it has been to me, you 
will carry it with you as long as you live. 

" A thing of beauty is a joy forever." 

Its true title would be, 

Isaiah's Pentecostal Baptism, Navigated by 

Himself. 

Some have supposed that this wonderful expe- 
rience was Isaiah's call as a prophet, and not a 
subsequent baptism, and that the sixth chapter 
ought to have been placed as the first of the book 

of his prophecies. 

(142) 



AN AFTER EXPERIENCE. 143 

That it is not so found, is conclusive that it 
ought not to have been so placed. The wisdom of 
God put the chapters as well as the books of the 
Bible, each in its right place, and the faithfulness 
of God has kept them there. We will not im- 
peach either the one or the other. 

Moreover, the reasoning that would change this 
chapter and this experience, and place them at the 
beginning, instead of on somewhere along in the 
book and the life, would in like manner, if applied 
to the Apostles, place their pentecostal experience 
at the time of their call to the apostleship, before 
they had even yet been sent forth to preach and to 
heal : but this the Lord did not do. He placed it 
afterward, both in the fact and in the record. 

And as in their case so in Isaiah's, the true order 
undoubtedly was, first the renewal of his own 
heart, then the call and commission, and then the 
baptism of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah himself tells 
us, in the first chapter, that he prophesied in the 
days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings 
of Judah. And in the sixth, that he had this 
experience the year that Uzziah died. And chro- 
nologists set down the time of his prophetic work 
in the days of Uzziah, previous to this experience, 
at two years, a period short enough when we con- 
sider that the record of his discourses during that 
time occupied five chapters out of sixty-six of his 



144 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

book, or one-thirteenth of the whole number, 
whilst the time allowed for it is but one thirty-first 
of the whole sixty-two years of his public min- 
istry. 

It is very plain, therefore, that this sixth chapter 
experience was not Isaiah's call as a prophet, but 
the prophet Isaiah's after and deeper experience as 
a man. Of his 

INITIAL EXPERIENCE 

we have not the story narrated by himself, as we 
have of this later one, but we have in his instruc- 
tions to others, the clearest evidence that he knew 
all about conviction, repentance, and renewal of 
heart and life, when he entered upon his public 
ministry. How long before his call to be a prophet, 
it was when he was born into the kingdom, we 
cannot tell. But the very first of his recorded 
prophecies presents the necessity for the new birth, 
and the way of its attainment, with a distinctness 
never excelled, and urges it with a sureness seldom 
equaled. It opens with an apostrophe to the 
heavens and the earth, as witnesses of God's 
goodness as a Father, and man's rebellion as a 
child. Then follow, one after another, appeals 
implying clearly that the prophet understood the 
processes, divine and human, which precede and 
embrace the complete blotting out of the record of 
sin. 



AN AFTER-EXPERIENCE. 145 

1. The chastening and convincing power of God. 

2. Then the vain and futile attempts of man to 
establish himself in his own righteousness. 

3. Then true repentance and return to the 
Lord. 

4. And, finally, the washing away of sin, which, 
though as scarlet, is made as white as snow, and 
though red like crimson, becomes as wool. 

No man could have so taught, and so presented 
these things, who had not himself been taught of 
the Lord, and impressed by them. Between the 
prophet's setting forth of the real process in the 
initial experience, and his graphic description of 
the after baptism, th§re are characteristic differ- 
ences, in perfect harmony w 7 ith the New Testament 
figures and facts concerning the two. 

Washing, symbolizes the first — the change of 
mind. Sins though red like crimson, washed white 
as snow, and though like scarlet, made like wool. 
Corresponding to the baptism of water, the sym- 
bol of the new birth, as taught by John the Bap- 
tist, and our Lord and His Apostles. 

Burning, symbolizes the other, the reception of 
the- Holy Ghost as an ever-abiding Comforter. Sins 
all taken away — iniquities all purged as by fire : 
as taught concerning the deeper baptism exempli- 
fied on the day of pentecost, in fulfillment of pre- 
vious promises and prophecies. 
10 



146 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

No doubt the two years, more or less, of Isaiah's 
previous public ministry, had served to prepare him 
to receive the after experience. He must have 
been brought to hunger and thirst after righteous- 
ness. And certainly he had found out something 
of the difficulties of the work before him, and of 
his need of power to cope with them. The people 
were w T edded to their idols. Babylon was their 
Paris. Idol temples were their operas, theatres, 
and worse # places. Women were mad after dress, 
men after money, and both after fashion and pleas- 
ure. Eeligion was brought down to the standard 
of their worldly aspirations, and made to bathe in 
idolatry and sanctify the grossest licentiousness. 
All this Isaiah saw, and he must have begun to 
feel his own utter insufficiency for the work of 
stemming and turning the tide. 

The temptations besetting him, too, he must 
have felt very deeply. He saw before him, as a 
prophet and a poet and court preacher and na- 
tional orator, all the favor and fame his heart could 
desire, upon condition that he should -be easy upon 
popular sins and official corruptions, but all lost if 
he should speak out in good, plain, hearty earnest, 
and seek to win the people from the world to the 
Lord, and from sin to holiness. 

Seeing all this, and feeling that his own heart 
could not be trusted, he must have longed for 



AN AFTER-EXPERIENCE. 147 

something which would enable him to stand up 
against these powerful influences within and with- 
out. And the Lord gave it to him. 

WHAT ISAIAH SAW, 

deepened, immeasurably, all his previous impres- 
sions of his need of a baptism of fire. He saw 
the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, 
His train filling the temple, while attendant seraphs 
stood above, upon the right and left, each having 
six wings, with twain veiling his face, with twain 
veiling his form, and with twain flying in attend- 
ance upon the movements of the King on his 
throne, and in obedience to His commands. 

Sitting upon a throne. — Isaiah needed to be 
taught that the throne is the Lord's true place. 

High and lifted up. — His exaltation in right- 
eousness and truth, mercy and grace, too, he 
needed to understand more fully. 

And Ilis train filled the temple. — Above all, 
he needed to know and accept, practically and 
experimentally, the fact that in His sovereignty the 
Lord rules everywhere, in everything. That His 
sovereignty fills every day, and every transaction of 
life ; that it embraces alike worlds and atoms, ser- 
aphs and insects ; that He has a good, acceptable, 
and perfect will, for every one of His children ; and 
that it is our true wisdom to know this, and prove 



148 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

this in our own daily experience. The glory of 
the Lord thus exalted reigning over all, worthy to 
rule in all. O, how it must have impressed him ! 
Added to this, the beautiful example of the 
attendant seraphs, veiling themselves out of sight, 
keeping time with every movement of the Lord in 
His throne, and flying as on wings of delight to do 
His bidding. O, how it must have made his own 
past life appear to him in the contrast ! 

One can easily understand how shame must 
have covered his face in view of his own frequent 
and persistent desire to have his own will and way 
instead of accepting the Lord's. And how con- 
fusion must have mantled his brow when he 
reflected how often and how continually he had 
planned for the Lord, instead of seeking to know 
the Lord's plans for him, and tried, as it were, by 
agonizing prayer, to compel the Lord to carry out 
his human devisings, when he ought, all the time, 
humbly to have directed his energies to the accept- 
ance and fulfillment of the Lord's devisings for him. 

WHAT ISAIAH HEARD 

completed the impression, and filled up the meas- 
ure of his sense of uncleanness in himself and in 
the people amongst whom he dwelt. 

The choral song of the seraphs expressed what 
their movements showed. Their sense of the 



JIN AFTER-EXPERIENCE. 149 

right of the Lord to reign over all and to rule in 
all, and of the perfect rectitude of His sovereignty 
in all places of His dominion, welled up in their 
hearts and overflowed from their lips in tones of 
seraphic sweetness, and one cried Holy! and the 
other answered Holy ! and both united saying, 
(i Holy is the Lord God of hosts ; the whole earth 
is full of His glory ! " 

To the prophet this cnpral song of the seraphs 
was as if, from their exalted position, they with a 
heaven high and world wide survey had seen all 
things and understood all the ways of the Lord, 
and burst forth with the responsive song, Eight ! 
right ! right ! all right ! the whole world is full of 
the glory of the Lord in His perfect rectitude ! 

And this was equivalent, in the heart of the 
prophet, to the very opposite word as concerning 
himself: Wrong ! wrong ! all wrong ! the whole of 
your life is full of your shame ! No wonder, then, 

WHAT ISAIAH SAID, 

" Woe is me, for I am undone, for I am a man 
of unclean lips and I dwell amidst a people of 
unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, 
the Lord of hosts ! " Truly, the Searcher of hearts 
had searched him through and through, and shown 
him to himself, as he never could have known him- 
self in a whole life time of self searching in the 

L 



150 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

light of his own reason, with all the aids he could 
have commanded from every source. 

What the Lord does, he does thoroughly and 
quickly. A moment was sufficient for him, in the 
case of Job, to take all disposition to justify himself 
and question the ways of the Lord as to whether 
they were right or not, at once and forever out of 
the patriarch's heart, and make him exclaim, 
" Behold, I am vile : what shall I answer Thee ? 
Once have I spoken, but I will not answer ; yea, 
twice, but I will proceed no further. I have heard 
of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine 
eye seeth Thee, wherefore I abhor myself and 
repent in dust and ashes." So now, in the case of 
Isaiah, a moment, a single view of the Lord and a 
single song of His holiness, sufficed to fill the 
prophet with a full sense of his vileness, and to 
bring upon him the consciousness that a woe was 
upon him which divine power alone could re- 
move. 

WHAT THE SERAPH DID FOR THE PROPHET, 

contains the very gist of this whole after experience 
as it concerns us. He flew to the altar, took from 
it with the tongs a burning coal, and laid it on the 
lips of Isaiah, and said, " Lo, this hath touched 
thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy 
sin is purged." 



AN AFTER-EXPEPilENCE. 151 

The prophet believed the word of the seraph^ 
and the Lord made it good to him. The assur- 
ance was realized. Isaiah was baptized with 
fire and thoroughly purged from his sin and 
uncleanness. Then, O what a heavenly peace 
must have come into his soul! O what a relief 
and release was that to him! This done, the 
prophet could now see the King in His beauty and 
rejoice in Kim, and could hear the seraphic praises 
of His holiness, and pour forth the overflowings of 
his own heart in the same song from his own puri- 
fied lips. 

In the earlier experience, he had learned the 
baptism of washing— the scarlet and crimson record 
against him had been washed out by the blood of 
the Lamb. Now, in this after experience, he 
learned the baptism of burning. 

The sin in itself in its power to bind, and the 
iniquity in its tenacious hold on the soul, were 
taken away by pentecostal fire. The Lord did 
it ; He did it all ; He showed the prophet his 
need of it, and brought him into despair of ever 
cleansing himself, and then instantly cleansed him 
by the baptism of fire. 

This is wonderfully instructive, and so is the 
way in which it was done. The simple touch of 
the fire from the altar in the moment of despair ; 
the simple assurance that he was cleansed ; the 



152 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

simple faith of the prophet in the word spoken | 
and the instant reception of the blessing. 

THE IMMEDIATE EFFECT 

is seen at a glance. The prophet was made both 
willing and fit for the work of a true servant of 
God in that day of God's power. The Lord tested 
this by the two questions, " Who will go for me ? 
and, Whom shall I send ? " In other words, Who 
is willing and who is fit for my service ? One 
might say yes, but not go ; or say yes and go, and 
yet be wholly unqualified by power from on high. 
But who is both willing and endued with power ? 
He only who has received the baptism of fire. 

The instant response of Isaiah was, " Here am 
I, send me." Nor did he serve or vacillate when 
the Lord spread before him in advance the wonder- 
ful discouragements awaiting him in his course. 
Nor ever afterwards ; but with a heart as tender 
as a child's, his mind was as firm as adamant then 
and forever. 

THE AFTER EFFECTS 

may be profitably studied a life-time. O, what a 
wonderful book is the book of Isaiah ! How it 
links together the time that then was with the ends 
of all time and all between ! How it brings the 
pre-Christian and Christian times together as one! 
How it unfolds the love and tenderness of the Lord 



AN AFTER-EXPERIENCE. 153 

and the terrors of the law ! How it antedates the 
minutest and grandest events in the life of Christ, 
then not yet lived ! And how it tells of the times 
of refreshing from the presence of the Lord in the 
after-pentecostal days ; yea, and in the days yet 
future to us ! 

O, what a life must have been that of Isaiah 
from that day onward during the sixty years, then 
yet remaining, of his ministry ! God grant us all 
to know the baptism, the service, the life, — each in 
the sphere where the Lord has placed us, — so 
beautifully exemplified, in his sphere, by the 
prophet. 




XV 



THE ANOINTING OF GLADNESS, 




HEN 



cries. 



a child 
When 



comes into the world it 
a soul is born of God it 



sings, peradventure shouts for joy. Well 
may this be so, for the one comes into a world 
of wickedness, trouble and sorrow ; the other into 
a kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy. 

The new-born church of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
photographed to the life in the second chapter of 
Acts from the forty-first verse to the end, and again 
in the end of the fourth chapter, is very lovely — 
indeed, beautiful. 

* In the beauties of holiness. 
From the womb of the morning, 
Even as Thou, O Christ ! 
Hast the dew of Thy youth.' — Psalm ex. 



Upon every feature of this wonderful picture rests 
gladness as a glory — a covering of sunshine over 

all. The one hundred and twenty in that upper 

(154) 



THE ANOINTING OF GLADNESS. 155 

chamber, and the three thousand added unto them 
that same day, like Christ, and in Him, were 

" Anointed with the oil of gladness 
Above their fellows." 

Nor was this evanescent. They continued stead- 
fast. Their daily life was illuminated by the Sun of 
Righteousness. They went in and out of the tem- 
ple and in and out of their homes, and through 
their daily avocations, in the continual sunshine of 
the presence of the blessed, risen Christ. Their 
tables, like their temple services, and their work, 
like their worship, had the joy of the Lord upon, 
and in, and through all. Their singleness of heart 
and singular devotion were no fitful service, but 
constant as it was glad, and full as it was steadfast. 

Neither was it a hard service. It was easy as 
breathing. A love service is sweet — sweet on both 
sides. Theirs was on both sides a love service. It 
was begotten of God's love to them, and by them 
it was rendered to God in love responsive to His 
own. 

Nor was it a fearful service. True, fear did fall 
on every soul, but not the fear that hath torment ; 
not fear for themselves, not fear of God as a judge, 
but the sweet awe of the soul which springs out of 
a true vision of the 

4 Majestic sweetness enthroned 
Upon the Saviour's brow/ 



156 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

The awe which holds one still 

"In all the silent heaven of love." 

Most marvellous of all, however, in this money 
loving world, is the glory that rests in this picture 
upon the money question. No one of the one 
hundred and twenty, or of the three thousand 
added that day, or of the five thousand to which 
their number grew a day or two after, or of the 
great multitudes as they were counted, when con- 
verts could no longer be numbered by thousands, 
seems to have said that aught of the things he pos- 
sessed were his own. They held all as the Lord's. 
So they said, and they gave practical evidence of 
their truthfulness by selling what they did not need 
and freely supplying the wants of others. He that 
had gathered much had nothing over, and he that 
had gathered little lacked nothing. There were no 
beggarly devices to get money ; there was no check 
or chill to enterprise for want of money ; no incu- 
bus of debt on the infant church, nor any ambition 
of wealth and respectability, to tempt it to forget 
souls, and shape its policy to catch money instead 
of men, to haul in the rich and sift out the poor. 
Money flowed in and out as spontaneously as the 
waters of a living fountain. No pinched penny 
fell into the treasury, but every coin sparkled and 
glowed with the gladness of the giver. The lying 



THE ANOINTING OF GLADNESS. 157 

offering of an Ananias and Sapphira, large as it 
may have been, could find no place, no acceptance 
amongst the true offerings of the glad ones. 

What an amazing spectacle would such a church 
present in our day ! A member of one of the 
churches of New York, was extolling his own in 
comparison with other churches of the city, and 
the highest note of his praise was this, " The pews 
of our church represent seventy-two millions of 
dollars ! v As he said this it seemed as if the 
thought of it added a million, at least, to his own 
stature in the world. There may be other churches 
in New York or other cities richer than this — far 
richer for aught I know — wealth seems to seek 
safety now-a-days, in churches. Suppose that any 
one of them should undergo a pentecostal trans- 
formation, should really be converted and become 
like the infant church photographed in Acts. Sup- 
pose it should find its glory not in money but in 
grace, — not in having but giving. Suppose its 
millionaires, one after another, should begin selling 
their surplus bonds, stocks, government securities, 
houses, lands, and parting the proceeds to tho.^e 
who are in need, what a wonder it would be ! A 
wonder, only less in a church up town than it 
would be in a stock exchange or gold room down 
town. 

This state of things in the infant church was 



158 GLADNESS IN JUS US. 

not only real but abiding, not only actual but nor- 
mal ; it was not a strained condition growing out 
of either a temporary flood of enjoyments, or a 
tide of momentary sympathy from an awful pres- 
sure of suffering, but easy, steady, true, and O 
how glad withal ! They went about selling and 
giving away, as they did about breaking bread 
from house to house, and worshiping in the temple 
with gladness and singleness of heart, praising 
God, and having favor with all the people. 

It is not at all strange that, with such a spirit in 
the church, there should have been added unto 
them daily such as should be saved. The magnet- 
ism of such a body could not fail of drawing to 
itself all who should come within the circle of its 
attraction. No wonder the one hundred and 
twenty became three thousand in a day, and five 
thousand in a day or two more, and great multi- 
tudes shortly after. It was an infant church in- 
deed, but princely in power, to prevail with God 
and man. 

Opposition fanned the flame of love — threaten- 
ings caused prayer and increased boldness. They 
carried with them the sunshine of their gladness 
everywhere, because their Sun in His clear shining 
was within them. In prisons and midnight dark- 
ness the shining was brightest because the contrast 
w r as greatest. Their songs were never so ringing 



THE ANOINTING OF GLADNESS. 159 



as in dungeons and in the stocks. All things, 

however, gave victory. If persecution did fall, 

bomb-like, amongst them, and scatter them, and 

send them everywhere to scatter the fire, so did 

peace and rest serve them to build up, and extend, 

and increase with still greater rapidity. They did 

not wait a moment for money, or for organizing 

boards to send forth and sustain missionaries. 

They did spend a little time in fasting and prayer, 

to know the mind of the Lord when the Holy 

Ghost said, " Set apart unto me Saul and Barnabas, 

for the work whereunto I have called them." This 

was the signal for a grand missionary onslaught 

upon Cyprus, Asia, Macedonia, Greece, Italy and 

the world. The army was indeed a small one, 

but went forth under a Captain mightier than an 

Alexander the Great, carrying with them and 

within them their base of supply, as they did the 

sunshine of their gladness in their indwelling 

Saviour, and wherever they went victory perched 

upon their standard. 

Ah! such an anointing of gladness, should it 
come upon the church to-day, would soon give us 
the fulfillment of the wonderful prophecies so long 
delayed. A nation would be born in a day. The 
kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom, under 
the whole heaven would be given to the saints of 
the Most High, in a single generation. Christ 



100 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

would reign from the river to the ends of the 
earth, and the meek would conquer and inherit 
the world. 

How is This to be Brought to Pass ? 

This is how it was brought to pass and will be 
again : Christians were brought to accept the glad 
tidings in its fullness, and were filled with the full- 
ness of God. 

To understand this matter fully we need to see 
how this was brought about in no less than four 
different groups of the glad ones comprising the 
infant church of Christ. 

1. There were the one hundred and twenty. 
The anointing of gladness to them was an after 
experience. They were disciples before, but the 
anointing afterwards made a marvellous change in 
them. They had before forsaken all to follow 
Christ. He was the Rock upon whom they built 
their hopes, and aspirations, and plans for a king- 
dom. The crucifixion came and swept away the 
hay, wood and stubble of their building. The 
naked Rock only was left, and that covered from 
their view in the rubbish of their ruined expecta- 
tions. The resurrection followed, and step by step 
Christ built up in their hearts a new structure of 
confidence in Him as risen indeed. His appearance 



THE ANOINTING OF GLADNESS. 161 

to the women first, then to Peter and Cleopas on 
the way to Emrnaus, then to part of the eleven, 
then to them all, making Thomas put his finger 
into the nail prints and his hand into the spear- 
place ; then to them on the shore of the sea of Gal- 
lilee; then to the five hundred at once, and finally 
His ascension in their sight to the glory He had 
with the Father before the world was. This served 
to establish them perfectly in the fact of His resur- 
rection and enthronement in glory. With this He 
induced also the fullest expectation of a new experi- 
ence, a spiritual endowment of power from on high 
in the gift of the Holy Ghost. On the mount of 
ascension He gave them three things : — 

A Commission. 
A Promise. 
A Command. 

He commissioned them to conquer the world in 
His name. 

He promised them power to do it. 

He commanded them to wait for the promise 
before entering upon the commission. 

They gave themselves up to Him for the com- 
mission. 

They believed in Him for the promise. 

They obeyed Him by keeping the command. 



162 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

From the moment they left the spot where they 
had seen Him ascend to glory they had the rest of 
faith, and awaited the endowment of power. Great 
joy filled their hearts, perfect unity bound them 
together, implicit obedience held them still with 
one accord in one place in Jerusalem, perfect trust 
filled them with delight Ten days the Lord kept 
them waiting in obedient trust after they were 
brought into the rest of faith, before He gave them 
the sealing and filling of the Spirit. 

The two sides of this blessed anointing were 
these : The disciples awaiting it in obedience to 
the command, trusting in the promise, on the one 
side. On the other, Christ waiting the moment and 
then fulfilling the promise in the gift of the Spirit. 

2. The three thousand added on the day of 
Pentecost, form another group. The anointing in 
their case seems to have been connected immedi- 
ately with their conversion, and not an after experi- 
ence as in the case of the one hundred and twenty. 
They saw exemplified before them the power of 
tr^e gift of the Holy Ghost, and were distinctly told 
what it was, and that it was shed forth by the liv- 
ing, risen, reigning Christ, w 7 hom they in their 
blindness had crucified. They cried out, a Men, 
brethren, what must we do ? " Peter told them to 
repent and be baptized for the remission of sin, and 



THE ANOINTING OF GLADNESS. 163 

they should receive the Holy Ghost. They believed 
the double promise of remission and endowment, 
and obeyed the command and received the gift. 

3. Another group is that of the Samaritans, 
who believed on Christ as preached unto them by 
Philip, and had great joy in remission of sins — -a 
first experience ; and then, under the ministration 
of Peter and John, received the Holy Ghost as an 
after experience. The special showing of this 
group is this, that although they believed in Jesus 
as preached to them by Philip, who was full of 
faith and the Holy Ghost, and that after the Spirit 
had been given, yet they did not receive the Spirit 
in their first but an after experience. 

4. Apollos is the representative of still another 
group. He was a believer in and an eloquent 
preacher of Christ already, knowing only the bap- 
tism of John — the experience of remission. Aquila 
and Priscilla heard him, saw his lack, took him and 
led him into the more perfect way. With him as 
with the one hundred and twenty and with the 
Samaritans, it was an after experience. 

The special showing of this group is this, that 
it was not by the ministration of Apostles, but of 
two plain tent makers, a man and his wife, that 
Apollos was led to the faith and the experience of 
the anointing of gladness. 



1G4 GLADNESS IN JESUS. 

From the three thousand we learn that, under 
the fullest demonstration of power in the gift of the 
Holy Ghost, and under the clear presentation of the 
promise, the two-fold experience of remission and 
endowment may be at one and the same time. 

From the one hundred and twenty and the 
Samaritan believers and Apollos, we learn that in ^ 
most instances remission is accepted in a first, and 
the endowment in an after experience. 

From the one hundred and twenty and Apollos 
we learn that the time between the two experiences 
may be months or years. From the Samaritans we 
learn that it may be only days or hours. From 
them all we learn that it is the privilege of every 
believer, and that its distinctive conditions are, 
entire separation to Christ, and full trust in Him 
as a risen, living, reigning, present Saviour, together 
with the acceptance of His promise that He will 
give unto us the Holy Spirit. 

From them all we learn exactly what it is that 
the church now lacks, and how the power needed 
is to be obtained for the conquest of the world to 
Christ, that is : — 

The Anointing of Gladness. 



C8^ 82 




Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process 
** V ^ Neutralizing agent: Magnet Oxide 




Treatment Date: Oct. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 



A WORLD LEADER IN PAf ;'-RVATIOK 

11.1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



